Hatem Georges, Itani Rana, Ajrouche Roula, Abbas Nour, Farah Rita, Goossens Mathijs, Awada Sanaa
Clinical and Epidemiological Research Laboratory, Faculty of Pharmacy, Lebanese University, Hadath, Lebanon.
Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
J Med Access. 2023 Jan 17;7:27550834221147789. doi: 10.1177/27550834221147789. eCollection 2023 Jan-Dec.
Many governments encouraged generic use to enhance health equality and minimise health expenditure. The lack of knowledge and acceptance of generic medicines are the main barriers to their use.
This study aimed to assess population knowledge and perception towards generic drugs, identify their primary sources of information and examine which variables are independently related to their acceptance.
An observational cross-sectional study was performed targeting the Lebanese adult population.
Overall, 385 patients participated in the study. Data were collected using a uniform survey from six public healthcare centres.
The participants reported a distrust towards generic drugs; they either said that they were not as effective as the brand (36.9%), were of less quality than the brand (38.5%) or had more side effects than the brand (38.4%). Around 52% said they would never buy a generic drug, and two-thirds (68.6%) preferred using a brand drug over a generic one. After adjusting for socio-demographics, a high income (odds ratio (OR) = 3.7), knowing that brands and generics have the same active ingredients (OR = 2.28) and that brands and generics were equally effective (OR = 6.46) were the strongest independent predictors for the willingness to buy generic drugs.
A lack of knowledge and misperceptions about generic drugs limited the use of generic drugs, and therefore must be addressed.
许多政府鼓励使用仿制药以促进健康平等并尽量减少医疗支出。对仿制药缺乏了解和接受是其使用的主要障碍。
本研究旨在评估民众对仿制药的了解和看法，确定其主要信息来源，并研究哪些变量与他们对仿制药的接受程度独立相关。
针对黎巴嫩成年人口进行了一项观察性横断面研究。
共有385名患者参与了该研究。使用统一调查问卷从六个公共医疗中心收集数据。
参与者表示对仿制药不信任；他们要么表示仿制药不如品牌药有效（36.9%），质量比品牌药差（38.5%），要么副作用比品牌药多（38.4%）。约52%的人表示他们永远不会购买仿制药，三分之二（68.6%）的人更喜欢使用品牌药而非仿制药。在对社会人口统计学因素进行调整后，高收入（优势比（OR）=3.7）、知道品牌药和仿制药具有相同活性成分（OR=2.28）以及品牌药和仿制药同样有效（OR=6.46）是购买仿制药意愿的最强独立预测因素。
对仿制药缺乏了解和误解限制了仿制药的使用，因此必须加以解决。
