Prescription Drug Use Behavior and Influence Factors in Veteran Patients from the Perspective of Veterans

ABSTRACT

Objective@#This study aimed to explore a veteran patients’ behavior of prescribing drug use and of which influencing factors from the veteran patients’ perspective through qualitative interviews. @*Methods@#We recruited veteran patients through purposive sampling and interviewed 30 veteran patients aged 20 and over who had been taking prescription drugs. We developed and utilized an interview guide consisting of three themes for data collection. We made verbatim transcripts and analyzed data using the framework analysis. @*Results@#Participants were aware that they had large amounts of prescribing medicines and discarded the medicines. They often used improperly by the person himself or his family or acquaintances. The factors that influenced these inefficient prescription drug usage were grouped into ‘factors procuring more drugs than necessary’ and ‘factors being prescribed more drugs than necessary’. Anxiety about downgrading from the upper class to the lower among reward classes for veterans, and suspicion or dissatisfaction with the veteran policy caused the participants to procure more drugs than necessary. Additionally, they received too many medicines due to long-term prescriptions and lack of communication with their doctors, and poor quality of veteran health services. @*Conclusion@#To improve the medication use behavior of veteran patients, providing information or introducing interventions for the proper medication use is not enough. Efforts should be made to improve their negative recognition over relevant policies and health care services.