Beliefs of patients who visited community pharmacies about medicines and supplements, the need for drug therapy and medication adherence - a cross-sectional study.

Background: Beliefs about medicines, the need for drug therapy and patient willingness can influence medication adherence. The community pharmacist, through his skills as an expert in drug therapy, has the opportunity to promote medication adherence in everyday pharmaceutical practice. This study aims to assess beliefs about medicines and supplements and the need for drug therapy and medication adherence of the patients who visited community pharmacies.

Methods: 809 patient volunteers answered a 14-item online questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale. Statistical analysis was done in SPSS 27.0.

Results: The validity indices of the questionnaire were acceptable; internal consistency was good; and the factor analysis indicated 3 factors (Eigen values > 1.0). The median scores were 3.33 regarding the beliefs about medicines and supplements; 2.75 regarding the beliefs about the need for therapy; and 2.71 on medication adherence. Beliefs about medicines and supplements, the need for drug therapy, and medication adherence varied according to patients' socio-demographic status, health status, and access to pharmacy services (p ≤ 0.05).

Conclusion: Patients' beliefs about medicines and supplements were moderate, patients' beliefs about the need for drug therapy were negative and patients' medication adherence was good.