What are the attitudes of the English public towards prescription medication sharing?

Context Prescription medication sharing means giving medication prescribed for you to someone else or taking medication that has been prescribed for someone else. Prevalence rates for sharing range from 5-52%. However, there has been no research in the UK on this topic. Negative aspects of sharing include increased risk of adverse effects, drug interactions, or delayed healthcare seeking.

Objective To identify characteristics of those who have a positive attitude towards non-recreational prescription medication sharing. To explore the attitudes to sharing under different circumstances.

Study Design Secondary analysis of a population-based telephone survey (n=3000).

Dataset Data included age, sex, ethnicity, number of people in household and measures of socioeconomic status alongside responses to 22 attitudinal statements with 5-point Likert response to capture components of behaviour based on the COM-B model. Responses were converted into an attitudinal score. Analysis explored the associations of demographics with attitude responses through univariate and multivariate analysis.

Population Studied 3000 adults from the general population of England.

Outcome Measures Participants responses to attitude statements.

Results Overall, 18.37% of responders were positive about sharing. 81% agreed that there were risks involved in taking prescriptions without medical advice. Attitudes varied by characteristics; people who scored higher on measures of socioeconomic status on average had more positive attitudes. Participants who were younger and female were more likely to have shared.

Conclusions This is the first survey of attitudes of the English population towards sharing. Findings suggest that a significant minority of the English public have a positive attitude to this behaviour. Further research is required to determine if attitudes are linked to behaviour and the impact of behaviour on health and wellbeing.