| Article Access Statistics | | | Viewed | 162 | | | Printed | 6 | | | Emailed | 0 | | | PDF Downloaded | 9 | | | Comments | [Add] | | |
|
Click on image for details.
|
|
| SHORT COMMUNICATION |
|
| Year : 2022 | Volume
: 54
| Issue : 2 | Page : 131-137 |
A preliminary study to evaluate the behavior of Indian population toward E-pharmacy
Seema Bansal1, Hardeep Kaur2, Saniya Mahendiratta2, Phulen Sarma2, Subodh Kumar2, Amit Raj Sharma2, Rupa Joshi2, Anusuya Bhattacharyya2, Manisha Prajapat2, Ajay Prakash2, Bikash Medhi2
1 Department of Pharmacology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh; MM College of Pharmacy, Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana, Ambala, Haryana, India
2 Department of Pharmacology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India
Correspondence Address:
Prof. Bikash Medhi
Department of Pharmacology, Room No: 4044, 4th Floor, Research Block B, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/ijp.ijp_836_21
The use of the Internet has increased exponentially for buying as well as selling of goods. Even the purchase of medications online is no exception. Owing to its benefits, there are certain risk factors in purchase of online medicines. Currently, the data on the use of Internet pharmacies are limited. Thus, the main objective of our study is to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of Indian population toward E-pharmacy in India carried out in the Department of Pharmacology, PGIMER, Chandigarh. A KAP questionnaire was prepared which was distributed to the participants through Google Forms and a URL sent to them. This questionnaire was divided into four sections including demographics, occupation, income, and use of the Internet to measure the alertness toward the online purchase of medicines. A total of 322 responses were collected, out of which only 268 (83.2%) participants were aware of online pharmacy. The awareness was more in males and that too in urban population. Among the respondents, majority of the users prefer to buy medicines offline (81%, n = 217) which can be due to poor quality of medicines and lack of trustworthy websites. The utmost reason for buying the medicine online was deficiency of availability in the market and differences in the prices. The most preferred drugs respondents were willing to buy online were prescription drugs followed by cosmetics and dietary supplements. In conclusion, of our results, most of the people use the Internet to search for the medications online who prefer to consult the physicians before buying. Therefore, the future of online pharmacy can be improved if there will be some set guidelines, awareness, and knowledge among the users.
[FULL TEXT] [PDF]*
|
