JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The Internet is increasingly being used as a source for medicine-related information. People want information to facilitate decision-making and self-management and they tend to prefer the internet for ease of access. However, it is widely acknowledged that the quality of online information varies. Poor interpretation of medicine information can lead to anxiety and poor adherence to drug therapy. It is therefore important to understand how people search, select, and trust medicine information.

Objective:

The objectives of this study were to establish the extent of Internet use for seeking medicine information among Norwegian pharmacy costumers, to analyse factors associated with internet use and to investigate the level of trust in different sources and online sites.

Methods:

This is a cross-sectional study with a convenience sample of pharmacy customers recruited from community all but one pharmacy in Tromsø, a medium size municipality in Norway (77, 000 inhabitants). Persons (16 years) able to complete a questionnaire in Norwegian were asked to participate in the study. The recruitment took place during September and October 2020. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, social media was also used to recruit medicine users.

Results:

A total of 303 respondents reported which sources they used to obtain information about their medicines (both prescription and over the counter) and to what extent they trusted these sources. Forty-one percent of the respondents used the Internet for medicine information and the only factor associated with internet use was age. The Odds of using the Internet declined by five percent per year of age (OR 0.95, p < 0,05). We found no association between internet use and gender, level of education or regular medicine use. The main purpose reported for using the Internet was to obtain information about side-effects. Other main sources of medicine information were physicians (63 %), pharmacy personnel (47 %) and medication package leaflets (42 %), while 12 percent did not obtain medicine information from any sources. Over 90 % trusted health professionals as a source of medicine information, while almost half of those using the Internet trusted the information they found online. The most reliable online sites were the national health portals and other official health information sites.

Conclusions:

Conclusion: Norwegian pharmacy customers use the Internet as source of medicine information, but most still obtain medicine information from health professionals and packet leaflets. People are aware of the potential for misinformation on websites and they mainly trust high quality sites run by the health authorities.