Evaluating Gauteng pharmacists' attitudes towards generic medicines / Phuti Justice Sekwati

• Main Author: Sekwati, Phuti Justice
• Language: en
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Generic medicine; Attitude; Pharmacists; Innovator medicines; Generic substitution; Theory of planned behaviour; Consumer behaviour
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10394/15544

Generic medicines are very important in driving down the health care cost. In a country like South Africa, where more than 80% of the population depend on the state health care, it is important to find ways to reduce cost. The main aim of the study was to evaluate the attitude towards generic medicines by pharmacists in Gauteng province of South Africa. Gauteng as the economic hub of the country, with the highest population and the highest number of pharmacies and pharmacists, obtaining a picture around the attitude towards generic medicines would help the all the stakeholders in the health care sector to identify areas of concern and address them to drive a positive attitude. In order to evaluate the attitude, Fishbein models, which noted the intention to perform the behaviour in question as the immediate antecedent of any behaviour, were used. The models identified two conceptually independent determinants of intention, which are attitude towards the behaviour (personal) and subjective norm (social). Depending of which model one is using, one more determinant of the intention “perceived behavioural control” can be added on the theory of reasoned action to form model of planned behaviour. By evaluating the attitude one can therefore determine the level of intention to perform the behaviour of interest which is generic substitution in this study. An empirical study was conducted among 116 pharmacists and assistants in Gauteng province. The methodology included research design, instrument development, sampling methods, data collection, capturing and statistical analysis. The results were analysed using Cronbach Alpha coefficients to measure reliability of the research instrument, t-test and ANOVA to test the hypothesis and the variance between groups; the effect sizes and Spearman's rho to determine the correlation and relationship between two variables of interest. The results of the study showed that, 94% of the respondents believe that generics are viable alternatives to innovator medicines. On the question of pharmacists’ attitude towards generic medicines results showed that there was no significant difference in almost all the demographic characteristics gender, age, qualifications, employment level, years of experience and type of pharmacy one practices. The only significant driver of the difference in attitude is the location of the pharmacy where pharmacists practicing in the townships and the city centre were found to be more receptive to generics than those in the suburbs. Due to reliability failure on the control belief construct, the theory of planned behaviour was downgraded to theory of reasoned action, to exclude the control belief construct for further statistical analysis. Correlation between the two attitudes constructs, behavioural belief and evaluation of behavioural outcome was one of the highest, where behavioural belief was identified as the direct measure of attitude and also the main driver. The study concluded that attitude is one of the most important personal factors influencing both the organisation and individual consumer buying behaviour. Evaluating individuals’ attitude to the behaviour (use of a product or service) would help marketers to communicate the right message to the right customers. === MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015