Objectives: To identify how much patients know about the cost of the long-term medication they take and what importance they give to its cost.
Design: Descriptive study with a questionnaire to people collecting their prescriptions for long-term treatment.
Setting: Patients of working age and pensioners of our health centre who take medication for chronic illnesses.
Participants: 100 patients of working age and 100 pensioners who take medication for chronic illnesses.
Measurements: They were asked how much they thought each drug they picked up in CLT prescriptions cost. The figure given was compared with the real price. An opinion questionnaire, with 5 questions on the economic aspects of medication, was conducted.
Results: Patients of working age knew the price of 64% of their prescriptions with under 25% error. Pensioners only knew the cost of 27% of their prescriptions with under 25% error. 50% of patients of working age were very interested in the cost of what their doctor prescribed, whereas only 30.4% of pensioners were.
Conclusions: Patients of working age know quite accurately how much the drugs they are prescribed for long-term treatment cost, but pensioners know a lot less. Patients believed that doctors were sufficiently sensitive to the cost of prescriptions.