Prescription medicine sharing: exploring patients’ beliefs and experiences

Abstract

BackgroundPrescription medicine sharing has been defined as the lending of medicines (giving prescription medicines to someone else) or borrowing of medicines (being given and using a medicine prescribed for another person). This qualitative study explored the views of patients, to elicit information regarding factors influencing medicine sharing behaviours, their experiences of the consequences of prescription medicine sharing, and their risk assessment strategies when deciding to share.MethodsOne-on-one, face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were carried out in Auckland, New Zealand between September 2013 and August 2014 with 17 patients, purposively sampled to provide information from different socio-demographic backgrounds. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using a general inductive approach. The study received ethical approval, and all interviewees provided written informed consent.ResultsFindings were captured within five overarching themes: types of shared medicines; perceived benefits of sharing medicines; negative experiences of sharing; factors influencing sharing behaviours; and risk assessment strategies. Participants reported that sharing helped them to avoid treatment costs and the inconvenience associated with medical visits such as booking appointments. Conversely, unanticipated side effects, allergies, and taking inappropriate medicines were the main adverse consequences of sharing. Altruism, limited access to medicines/health services, sociocultural factors, and having unused prescription medicines were factors influencing sharing behaviours. Participants reported assessing the safety of sharing a medicine primarily based on symptom matching, past illness experiences, and knowledge about the medicines.ConclusionsThis study enriches previous survey findings, by providing insight into patients' reasons for medicines sharing. Healthcare providers should consider asking their patients about any medicines they have shared and their future sharing intentions, in order to use the opportunity for discussing safer sharing practices, without promoting the behaviour. The findings are helpful for informing the development of potential interventions and targeted educational messages about safe medicine use for patients.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40545-016-0075-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Prevalence and predictors of medicine saving and future prescription medicine sharing: findings from a New Zealand online survey

“…Conversely, medicines to treat heart problems, high blood pressure and diabetes were the top three medicines that study participants believed unsafe to be shared. This finding is consistent with previous research reports . In general, patients may have their own unique ways of evaluating the risks of sharing certain medicines.…”

A qualitative exploration of healthcare providers’ perspectives on patients’ non‐recreational, prescription medicines sharing behaviours

“…In line with earlier survey reports, in this study a wide range of medicines were reported to be shared. The findings regarding the types of shared medicines are also largely consistent with our previous qualitative study with patients: e.g. antibiotics, opioid analgesics, acne medicine, and steroid creams were reported to be commonly shared by both types of interviewees.…”

“…Fourth, although great efforts were made to increase the participation of community practitioners, particularly general practitioners, community practitioners were underrepresented in this study. Nonetheless, many of the findings reported here were echoed in our previous qualitative study with patients …”

“…In addition, some of the surveys used similar lists, which may have constrained the emergence of any new data around other reasons and the collection of richer explanations for sharing. Only a limited number of qualitative studies exist …”

“…Furthermore, studies of non‐recreational sharing have focused on patients’ perspectives of sharing medicines, and healthcare providers’ perspectives on the issue have rarely been explored. The importance of understanding patients’ views is not in question, and we have previously reported a qualitative study which explored patients’ perspectives on medicine sharing . However, in order to fully understand the factors influencing medicine sharing behaviours and to inform the development of comprehensive interventions, the views of healthcare providers are required.…”