Factors Influencing The Perception Of Physicians Towards Generic Medicines Prescription And Practices The Case Of Private Hospitals In Addis Ababa

Generic medicines have the same quality, safety, and efficacy as their counterpart brandrnmedicines. Generic medicines are produced by multiple manufacturers hence, are usuallyrncheaper and be cost effective than innovator brand. This research aimed to examine physicians’rnperception towards generic medications and factors influencing their practice in prescribingrngeneric medicines among private hospitals in Addis Ababa. Cross-sectional study was conductedrnwith physicians working in private hospitals of Addis Ababa. Data were collected using selfadministeredrnstructured questionnaires measuring physicians’ perception towards genericrnmedicines and their prescription using a Likert scale of 1–5. A total of 195(95%) of physiciansrnresponds from 205 physicians. Data were then entered into SPSS version 23 for analysis. Bothrndescriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data and the result was interpreted.rnMost of the physicians had good knowledge about generic medicines .However; there were gapsrnon the efficacy, quality and safety of generics medicines. A significant proportion of physiciansrndo not have positive perceptions of generic medicine. However, More than three fourth ofrnphysicians believed generic medicines contributed to cost-effective management of disease andrncould improve access to medications. Whereas significant numbers of physicians believedrngeneric medicines were only meant for poor, and have concerns on their efficacy quality andrnsafety. From regression result, except cost all independent variables have strong positive andrnstatistically significant relationship between these independent variables with both dependentrnvariables. The most influential factors affecting the physicians’ generic prescription practicernwere knowledge about generic medicine and safety, quality and efficacy of the genericrnmedicines. Finally the study conclude that majority of the physicians not have positivernperception and had concerns about safety, quality and the efficacy of generic medicines. There isrna low generic medicine prescription rate and physicians preferred to prescribe originator drugrnproduct. It requested the support of stakeholders to improve the utilization of generic medicinesrnand more scientific evidence about the safety and efficacy of generic medicines will improverngeneric prescribing.

Get Full Work

Report copyright infringement or plagiarism