MTM (Media Analysis Center) conducted a survey among citizens about the activities of pharmacies and the quality of medications. 51% of the 850 survey respondents were women, while 49% were men.
The first question allowed us to learn about the respondents’ views on the quality of medications. While 30.2% of the participants were satisfied with the quality of the medications, 17.2% expressed dissatisfaction. 52.6% of respondents said that the quality of medicines was acceptable.
36.5% of survey participants indicated that they visit several pharmacies and purchase medications after comparison. The results showed that 29.8% of respondents are comfortable purchasing medication from any pharmacy, 22.6% buy medicine from the same pharmacy every time, and 11.1% prefer traditional medicine.
Although 39.7% of respondents trust a pharmacy employee’s recommendation when buying medicine, they ultimately give weight to a doctor’s view, and 37.8% only purchase medication with a doctor’s prescription. 15.9% of respondents said they trust both the doctor and the pharmacy employee. 6.6% of the respondents trust the pharmacy employee’s advice and buy the recommended medicine.
In response to the next question, participants selected the factors they consider most important when choosing a pharmacy. Responses of the participants who had several options to choose from were as follows:
Reasonable prices – 55.2%;
Location in a nearby area – 40.8%;
Doctor’s recommendation – 37.1%;
Wide selection of medications – 30.1%;
Knowing someone who works there- 21.6%;
Any pharmacy – 14.6%;
Other – 8.7%.
Only 4.2% of respondents actively buy medications from online pharmacies. While 19.8% rarely shop at an online pharmacy, 76% never use one.
Although 17.6% of survey respondents used the services of compulsory health insurance, 82.4% did not use the mentioned services.