Patient Psychology with Respect to Generic Drugs in Comparison to Branded Drugs

Abstract

The motto of conducting this study was to know about the
various prevalent misconceptions and misapprehensions
about what generic medicines would be or on what grounds
do they stand apart from branded medicines. Since it was a
research and survey based project, the methodology adopted
was “Questionnaire-based cross-sectional study”. Two types
of survey were conducted named as - Qualitative survey and
Quantitative survey.
The questionnaire of the Quantitative survey method could be
divided into 3 parts i.e. Sociodemographic, medication profile
and knowledge on the concept of generic medicines. The
intent of including socio demographic analysis in this survey
was to get a clear idea of the factors such as age group and
occupation which would be having a direct impact on the type
and extent of healthcare facilities availed by an individual.
Similarly, the medication profile would give a clear view on
the patients’ psychology over the grounds of reliability on
the generic or branded medicines and their inclination would
come into light. Knowledge about the generic medicines
would clearly demarcate the strengths and loopholes that the
present scenario of medication harbors. The questionnaire for
Qualitative survey was divided into two parts i.e. the satisfactory
aspect and suggestions for medication adherence of patients in
future. The satisfactory aspect would let us know the views of a
generic-medicine- consumer and simultaneously if he wishes
to adhere to it in the future, also by noting his suggestions or
the problems faced by him while availing these facilities.
These factors were majorly considered, as in a developing
country like India, the incidence of Catastrophic Healthcare
Expenditure (CHE) is growing and is now estimated to be one
of the major contributors to poverty