Evaluation of the knowledge, perception and attitude of residents in medicine working in a university hospital about generic drugs

Physicians' concerns about generic drugs (GDs) restrict their prescribing. In this study, we aimed to analyse the level of knowledge, perceptions and attitudes of residents about GDs and also to evaluate the factors that may affect them. We furthermore determined the propotion of residents who encountered adverse effects related to GDs in their patients. This is a descriptive, cross-sectional research. The universe of the research consisted of residents (n=506) working in Dokuz Eylul University Hospital, authorized to prescribe. Data was collected by face-to-face questionnaire, between June-August 2018. The questionnaire consisted of 40 questions to evaluate the knowledge, perception and attitudes of residents about GDs. Descriptive statistics, t-test and chi-square test were used. Sixty six percent of the residents participated in this study (n = 334; age: 27.9 ± 2.4; 51.5% female). Their knowledge score of GDs was 8.2 ± 2.9 (out of 16). We found that being a younger physician, working in internal medicine, shorter duration of working as a physician and having been trained about GDs were the factors that increased the knowledge score (p<0.05). Our research revealed that almost half of the residents (48.3%) didn't prefer to prescribe GDs which may be due to their negative thoughts of effectiveness and quality about GDs. The rate of residents who thought that GDs were of lesser quality and effectiveness was almost 40.0%, whereas 25.2% of them thought that Ministry of Health's audit about GDs was sufficient. The rates of reporting ineffectiveness and side effects during treatment with GDs were 18.2% and 6.9%, respectively. It was observed that those who had positive thoughts about the "effectiveness, safety, quality" of residents experienced fewer adverse effects (p<0.001). The majority of residents (86.6%) demanded that physicians should be educated about the development and introduction of GDs. Training of residents about the process and properties of GDs will play an important role for increasing the knowledge score.