A study on the knowledge, attitude and practice of generic medicines among the doctors in a tertiary care teaching Hospital in north east India
Chayna Sarkar, B Das, Jb Wahlang, Dk Brahma, J Lahon, B S Nongkynrih and P K Nongrum
North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences, India
AIIMS, India
: J Pharm Sci Emerg Drugs
Abstract
Prescription drug spending is increasing and out-of-pocket expenses 80% of total health-care expenditures. Generic drugs are typically less expensive than brand-name drugs with the same therapeutic effect but many doctors hold negative views of generics and resist prescribing. To evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice of doctors regarding generic medicines and to explore the factors hindering and favoring generic drug prescribing if any. It is a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study in a tertiary-care teaching hospital. All doctors working in the hospital during the study period were participated and filled up the structured and pre-validated questionnaires and analyzed. Close to three-quarters of the participants had a good attitude about the efficacy and safety of generic and majority of doctors actively prescribe it but a high number of doctors(72%) were of the view that generic was manufactured to the poorer quality but cheaper than brand name drugs. The Majority of respondents believed that their prescribing decision is influenced by lots of factors. These results suggest that there are a significant number doctors concerns about the quality of generics and these negative perceptions are likely to be barriers to a wider acceptance of generics, In order to have a better understanding of generic, the doctor must be well-informed about the generic during their academic career resulting in savings to healthcare budgets.
Biography
Chayna Sarkar has completed her MBBS at the age of 24 years from Calcutta University and MD in Pharmacology from PGIMER, Chandigarh, India. She is the Professor and Head of the Dept Pharmacology NEIGRIHMS, Shillong, and Meghalaya, India. She has published more than 30 papers in reputed journals and she is the active member of Institute Scientific committee, Institute Ethics committee and Hospital Antibiotic policy committee etc.
E-mail: chayna_sarkar@hotmail.com
