Background
Patients encounter a range of different health care professionals as part of health care in the UK. The interaction between HCPs and patients during the clinical consultation may have an impact on medicine-taking behaviour. The type of advice which HCPs offer to patients about medicines may be influenced by their own attitudes to medication. A previous study found that pharmacy students had a significantly more positive view about medicines in general than students from other courses such as engineering, social policy and arts (Horne & Weinman, 1997). However, the degree to which the views of pharmacy students are shared by students of other HCPs is not known. Moreover, significant differences between HCPs views about medication identified during training may have an impact on subsequent practice in relation to medication (e.g. prescribing or the provision of advice to patients).

Aims
This study set out to compare the attitudes towards medicines in general among students of several health care professions.

Method
A total of 1416 students from 7 health and 2 non health-related undergraduate courses were studied. The former was a proxy measure of a group of HCPs and the latter represented a vocational and non-vocational course as the control group. The standardised 'Beliefs about Medicines in General Questionnaire' (BMQ- General, Horne et al., 1999) was used to assess views about medicines. ANOVA with Tukeys Honestly Significant Difference test was used for statistical analysis of variations within HCP groups and between HCPs and control groups.

Results
Pharmacy students (n=280) scored lowest on both the 'harm' (mean=8.6, SD=2.2) and 'overuse' (mean =12.8, SD=2.3) scales indicating that they perceived medicines in general to be less harmful and not to be over- prescribed. The perceived potential for causing harm was also low for students of medicine (n=313, mean=10.0, SD=2.3), physiotherapy (n=145, mean=10.1, SD=2.3), followed by dentistry (n=226, mean=10.2, SD=2.1), occupational therapy (n=56, mean=10.3, SD=2.0), environmental engineering (n=109, mean=10.6, SD=2.4), nursing (n=238, mean=10.7, SD=2.2), chiropody (n=22, mean=11.8, SD=2.4) and art (n=27, mean=12.4, SD=2.2) who viewed medicines as harmful substances. The view that medicines are overused was held strongest by students of art (mean=16.2, SD=2.6), followed by chiropody (mean=14.4, SD=1.9), occupational therapy (mean=14.3, SD=2.6), physiotherapy (mean=14.0, SD=2.1), nursing (mean=14.0, SD=2.6), dentistry (mean=13.4, SD=2.7), medicine (mean=12.9, SD=2.4) followed by pharmacy. Art students scored significantly higher on the 'overuse' scale than all other groups (F=12.9, df=8, p<0.01). Pharmacy students scored significantly less on the 'harm' scale than all other groups (F=25.3, df=8, p<0.01).

Conclusion
Significant differences were found between the extent to which HCPs and the control groups felt that medicines in general are harmful and overused. Whilst pharmacists and medical students hold the most positive views about medicines, other HCPs were significantly less positive about medicines in general. Furthermore, HCPs need to recognise that lay people may not have such a 'pro-medicine' outlook as themselves.

References

1. Horne R, Weinman J, Hankins M. The beliefs about medicines questionnaire: the development and evaluation of anew method for assessing the cognitive representation of medication. Psychol & Health 1999; 14 (1): 1-24.
2. Horne R & Weinman J. Cultural variation in beliefs about medicines. British Psychological Society Annual Conference of Health Psychology. University of Southampton, 13, 1997