Main Factors Affecting Physicians’ Prescribing Decisions: The Iranian Experience

Abstract

Prescription decision making is a complicated phenomenon influenced by many factors including drug strength, the patient's context, prescriber characteristics, health facilities, payment type and pharmaceutical marketing. To evaluate the associations between each influenced factor and drug prescription method of Iranian physicians, we conducted an exploratory research, utilizing a questionnaire as quantitative research instrument. A sample of 460 physicians was asked to fill out the questionnaire, yielding 84% response rate. The statistical analysis from the collected data demonstrated that Iranian physicians mostly paid attention to the payment type, the patients' individual factors and the products' characteristics while prescribing a medicine. In addition, it was revealed that marketing expenditures did not have a high influence on the physicians' demand for pharmaceutical products in Iran. The obtained results may be useful for Iranian pharmaceutical companies' marketing strategy planners as well as the patients who are the exact consumers of the prescribed medicines.