Pharmacist counselling for non-prescription medicine purchases is one way of ensuring that these medicines are used in a safe and effective manner. Data collected as part of a larger study of information sources on non-prescription medicines were used to determine consumers' preference for pharmacist counselling for non-prescription medicine purchases, their willingness to pay for the service, and the amount they were willing to pay. A total of 458 (15.2%) consumers from six contiguous states in the U.S.A. responded to the mailed questionnaire. Of the consumers who responded, 63.4% indicated a preference for such a counselling service and, of these consumers, 20.4% indicated a willingness to pay for the service. Of the consumers who indicated a willingness to pay for pharmacist counselling for non-prescription medicines, 56.5% were willing to pay between 50 cents and $1.50, 28.2% between $1.51 and $3, and about 15.3% were willing to pay more than $3. Significant differences were noted in consumers' preference for pharmacist counselling when compared on the basis of certain consumer characteristics. Consumers who indicated a preference for pharmacist counselling for non-prescription medicines showed a significantly higher involvement in non-prescription medicine purchase decision, perceived pharmacists to be more credible, and indicated more favourable previous encounters with pharmacists than consumers who did not prefer pharmacist counselling. Consumers who consulted pharmacists and usually accepted their recommendations were also more likely to prefer pharmacist counselling for non-prescription medicines.
The purpose of this exploratory study was to survey physicians' attitudes surrounding the 'gift relationship' between pharmaceutical companies and physicians. A survey was mailed to 1000 randomly selected West Virginia physicians, of which 283 (28.3%) responses were received. The most commonly received gifts reported by the study physicians were trinkets (77.4%), followed by books (41.7%) and meals (41%). Principal component analysis and varimax rotation identified seven physician belief constructs. The mean ratings of the constructs indicated that the physicians slightly agreed that pharmaceutical companies give gifts to physicians to influence their prescribing, moderately disagreed that they do so as a form of professional recognition of physicians, and strongly disagreed that their prescribing behaviour could be influenced by the gifts they receive. Physicians slightly disagreed that pharmaceutical companies' sponsoring of CME programmes are only promotional gimmicks. Although the study physicians slightly disagreed that it may be inappropriate for them to accept gifts from pharmaceutical companies, they seemed slightly averse to having 'gift relationships' between pharmaceutical companies and physicians made public. Correlation analysis suggested that physicians who have a large number of patients in their practice, see a larger number of patients per day, or write a large number of prescriptions per day are more likely to be offered gifts by pharmaceutical companies, and they are also more likely to condone the practice of gift giving and receiving.
OBJECTIVE:To develop and validate SF‐12 osteoarthritis‐specific health index (SF‐12 OASHI).
METHODS:Patient data on SF‐12 and six osteoarthritis (OP) clinical variables (physician and patient global assessments, pain intensity, knee pain on weight bearing and motion, time to walk 50 feet) at baseline and week, 6, from two placebo‐controlled clinical trials (n = 422), assessing efficacy of NSAIDs in OA patients were used. Using canonical correlation analysis, a SF‐12 OASHI was developed in 75% of the sample (n = 317) by adding individual SF‐12 item scores at baseline, each multiplied by their respective OA specific weights (canonical crossloadings on clinical variables). Validation (developmental sample) and cross‐validation (25% holdout sample [n = 105], and another clinical trial sample [n = 170]) of the SF‐12 OASHI were conducted by examining its correlation with clinical variables, and by computing the relative validity (RV) estimates of SF‐12 OASHI as compared to physical (PCS12) and mental component summary scores (MCS12), using baseline and change scores at 6 weeks. Correlation between SF‐12 component score and clinical variable was divided by correlation between OASHI and respective clinical variable to arrive at the RV.
RESULTS: SF‐12 OASHI demonstrated significant correlations with individual clinical variables ranging from −0.19 to −0.54 (p < 0.05). In general, SF‐12 OASHI was more sensitive than the PCS12 and MCS12 scores as indicated by higher correlation coefficients with clinical variables, at baseline, in developmental and two cross‐validation samples. At baseline, the RV coefficients for SF‐12 OASHI ranged from 0.64 to 1.09 for PCS12 and 0.37 to 0.89 for MCS12. In general, SF‐12 OASHI also showed more responsiveness to changes in clinical variables at 6 weeks as compared with PCS12 and MCS12 scores.
CONCLUSION:The SF‐12 OA‐specific health index is a comprehensive and more sensitive measure of patient quality of life in OA as compared with PCS12 and MCS12.
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