Medicines And The British

Many people in Britain do not know enough about other possible choices of treatment when prescribed a new medicine, according to the MORI Social Research Institute.

Many people in Britain do not know enough about other possible choices of treatment when prescribed a new medicine, according to the MORI Social Research Institute.

The research, conducted for Ask About Medicines Week, was among more than 2000 adults in Great Britain, and a separate survey was conducted among health professionals including GPs, pharmacists and practice nurses. The main findings from the surveys include:

  • 55% of people prescribed a new medicine in the past 12 months feel that they did not know enough about other possible medicines or treatments
  • Almost one in three people (29%) who have been prescribed a medicine in the past year feel they do not know enough about the potential side effects of medicines
  • Six in 10 people (61%) say the benefits of medicines outweighed the risks
  • Four in five (81%) say it is valuable to have different types of information about medicines from different sources (e.g. patient leaflets and Internet sites)
  • One in five people (21%) want to make more use of the Internet in future as a source of medicines information
  • The most useful source of information remains advice from health professionals
  • More than half of GPs, practice nurses and pharmacists (54%, 56% and 51% respectively) believe most patients want to be treated as partners in decisions about medicine taking.
  • One in seven doctors (14%) say patients would want the prescriber to decide for them

Technical details

MORI Social Research Institute interviewed a representative quota sample of 2,019 adults aged 15+ across 192 sampling points in Great Britain from 17-22 July 2003 on behalf of the Medicines Partnership. All interviews were conducted face-to-face in-home and the data have been weighted to the known profile of the British population.

MORI also conducted research among GPs, pharmacists and practice nurses in GB for the Doctor Patient Partnership between 14 and 25 July. 102 face-to-face interviews were conducted with GPs, and telephone interviews were conducted with pharmacists and practice nurses (100 in each case).

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