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Managing Medication Cost Burden: A Qualitative Study Exploring Experiences of People with Disabilities in Canada

Despite the abundant literature on the burden of rising costs of prescription medications, there is limited research to explore how these costs affect people and the decisions they are forced to make within the context of disability. In this qualitative study we explored strategies adopted, factors...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Gupta, Shikha, McColl, Mary Ann, Guilcher, Sara J.T., Smith, Karen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6747197/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31450782
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16173066
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author Gupta, Shikha
McColl, Mary Ann
Guilcher, Sara J.T.
Smith, Karen
author_facet Gupta, Shikha
McColl, Mary Ann
Guilcher, Sara J.T.
Smith, Karen
author_sort Gupta, Shikha
collection PubMed
description Despite the abundant literature on the burden of rising costs of prescription medications, there is limited research to explore how these costs affect people and the decisions they are forced to make within the context of disability. In this qualitative study we explored strategies adopted, factors influencing, and the impact of some of these strategies to manage the burden of medication cost among persons with disabilities. We interviewed 12 adults with spinal cord injuries living in Canada, using a general inductive approach to analyze the data. We found that before cutting back on medications due to costs, participants generally tried and sought help from the government, employers, and/or their prescribers to improve their drug coverage. The key factors that participants considered while making decisions on the strategies included the cost and perceived importance of medications, their financial status, other competing needs, and their relationship with the prescribers. While some of their efforts were successful, many participants were still not able to obtain their medications as prescribed. In those cases, patients resorted to rationing strategies such as cutting back on medications, other essential needs, or selling assets. These strategies had serious implications on their health, healthcare utilization, and quality of life.
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spelling pubmed-67471972019-09-27 Managing Medication Cost Burden: A Qualitative Study Exploring Experiences of People with Disabilities in Canada Gupta, Shikha McColl, Mary Ann Guilcher, Sara J.T. Smith, Karen Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Despite the abundant literature on the burden of rising costs of prescription medications, there is limited research to explore how these costs affect people and the decisions they are forced to make within the context of disability. In this qualitative study we explored strategies adopted, factors influencing, and the impact of some of these strategies to manage the burden of medication cost among persons with disabilities. We interviewed 12 adults with spinal cord injuries living in Canada, using a general inductive approach to analyze the data. We found that before cutting back on medications due to costs, participants generally tried and sought help from the government, employers, and/or their prescribers to improve their drug coverage. The key factors that participants considered while making decisions on the strategies included the cost and perceived importance of medications, their financial status, other competing needs, and their relationship with the prescribers. While some of their efforts were successful, many participants were still not able to obtain their medications as prescribed. In those cases, patients resorted to rationing strategies such as cutting back on medications, other essential needs, or selling assets. These strategies had serious implications on their health, healthcare utilization, and quality of life. MDPI 2019-08-23 2019-09 /pmc/articles/PMC6747197/ /pubmed/31450782 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16173066 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Gupta, Shikha
McColl, Mary Ann
Guilcher, Sara J.T.
Smith, Karen
Managing Medication Cost Burden: A Qualitative Study Exploring Experiences of People with Disabilities in Canada
title Managing Medication Cost Burden: A Qualitative Study Exploring Experiences of People with Disabilities in Canada
title_full Managing Medication Cost Burden: A Qualitative Study Exploring Experiences of People with Disabilities in Canada
title_fullStr Managing Medication Cost Burden: A Qualitative Study Exploring Experiences of People with Disabilities in Canada
title_full_unstemmed Managing Medication Cost Burden: A Qualitative Study Exploring Experiences of People with Disabilities in Canada
title_short Managing Medication Cost Burden: A Qualitative Study Exploring Experiences of People with Disabilities in Canada
title_sort managing medication cost burden: a qualitative study exploring experiences of people with disabilities in canada
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6747197/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31450782
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16173066
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