Abstract:

In China, generic drug substitution is affected by multiple factors. However, existing studies mainly focus on policy analysis and clinical use. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the influencing factors in psychiatric patients in China’s "4 + 7" pilot cities. The demographic characteristics, willingness to use Chinese generic drugs, and influencing factors of psychiatric patients in four pilot cities were investigated by questionnaire, and the results were statistically analyzed. Univariate analysis revealed that the willingness to use the selected generic drugs was significantly correlated with educational background, age, average monthly income, time of illness, and severity of illness. Furthermore, logistic regression analysis indicated that the willingness to use the selected generic drugs was significantly associated with patients’ age. Therefore, the government should pay attention to the role of young and middle-aged groups in the substitution of generic drugs, carry out differential management, strengthen education and propaganda to all parties, adjust the standard of medical insurance payment for the selected generic drugs, and ask doctors to make suggestions on the use of selected generic drugs to target patients.

Key words: Generic drug substitution, Influencing factors, Volume-based procurement, Psychiatric patients