Evaluation of awareness about pharmacoeconomics in postgraduate students of a tertiary care teaching hospital: a questionnaire based observational study

Abstract

Background: Pharmacoeconomics identifies, measures and compares the costs and consequences of drug therapy to health care systems and society. The per capita income of all middle class people is limited and the drug prices are growing extensively. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the health-care professionals to balance both cost and quality of treatment. Hence, this study was planned among the postgraduate students who form the major part of health care delivery system to assess their awareness about pharmacoeconomis.Methods: This was a questionnaire based cross-sectional study. Self-administered questionnaire was distributed among 72 residents, out of which 61 completely filled questionnaires were finally used for statistical analysis. The questionnaire contained questions relating to awareness, knowledge, method of application and students’ attitude about pharmacoeconomics.Results: The willingness to participate in the study among postgraduates was extremely poor. Those who have participated, almost 39% of participants were having awareness about the topic. Nearly 31 % of the participants were having knowledge regarding pharmacoeconomics and around 21 % of participants have learnt the method of application in various aspects.Conclusions: Study has revealed that that the knowledge and perception level of postgraduates in day to day use of pharmacoeconomic concepts are poor and limited. Therefore, it is very necessary to make them aware about the concept of pharmacoeconomics by incorporationg it in their medical curriculum and by conducting CMEs and Workshops on pharmacoeconomics.

Pharmacists’ awareness, knowledge, and attitudes regarding pharmacoeconomics in the Al-Madinah Al-Munawara region, Saudi Arabia

“…19 Pharmacoeconomics can act as a decision-making aid for healthcare professionals to improve the cost-efficiency and equity of resource allocation, consequently reducing the economic burdens on patients and third-party payers, such as the government. 3,[6][7][8] Previous studies, such as that by Al-Jazairi et al, 1 showed that some barriers challenge the application of pharmacoeconomics for decisionmaking, such as the lack of quality data on the Saudi population and scarce clinically relevant and unbiased published costeffectiveness data when a new drug is considered for addition to the formulary. However, this study shows that pharmacists, who are key resource allocators in healthcare, have suboptimal awareness and knowledge of pharmacoeconomics.…”

“…First, subgroup analysis based on gender showed that women scored higher in both awareness and knowledge than men (2.44 and 2.37 versus 1.69 and 1.23, respectively). Moreover, those who occupied administrative positions scored lower in both 12 (7) awareness and knowledge than those who had never held an administrative position (1.63 and 1.28 versus 2.04 and 1.72, respectively), even though administrators are supposed to be decision-makers. Nearly 84% of participants who had held administrative positions had more than five years of experience, while only 32% of those who had never held administrative positions had more than five years of experience.…”

“…In this cross-sectional study, a modified pre-validated selfadministrated questionnaire, which has been used in several studies, 7,8,20,21 was prepared in Google Forms in both English and Arabic. The modifications in the original questionnaire include changing the specific questions that related to the country in which the original questionnaire were distributed to more general questions.…”

“…Such analyses can help determine whether the additional benefits of one treatment or service are worth the inherent additional costs. 3,[6][7][8] Therefore, pharmacoeconomics can inform healthcare professionals' decision-making in terms of improving the allocation of limited healthcare resources by promoting the most appropriate and cost-effective pharmaceutical products and services. For example, a study by Mori and Robberstad 9 found significant evidence indicating that pharmacoeconomic studies impacted the selection and listing of drugs in the national medicine list in Tanzania.…”