Use and influence of pharmacoeconomic information: A causal framework
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an instrument to measure user perceptions of selected pharmacoeconomic information characteristics and organizational characteristics. The pharmacoeconomic information characteristics examined in this study were: perceived usefulness, perceived credibility, research report structure, political acceptability of recommendations, confirmation/disconfirmation and researcher-user interaction. The organizational characteristics were formalization and centralization. Another objective was to examine the direct and indirect effects of each of the pharmacoeconomic information characteristics and organizational characteristics on the instrumental use of pharmacoeconomic information. The extent (frequency) of use of pharmacoeconomic information in performing various drug therapy management tasks was also examined. A structured mail questionnaire was developed for data collection. Separate scales designed to measure the dependent and each of the eight independent variables were developed and included in the questionnaire. The study questionnaires were mailed to a nationwide stratified random sample of 1,200 hospitals from the 1994 AHA Guide to the Health Care Field. A usable response rate of 35 percent was obtained. Reliability and validity analyses revealed all study scales to be stable and valid measures of the corresponding constructs. Structural equation analysis indicated perceived usefulness, perceived credibility, confirmation/disconfirmation and formalization to have the strongest direct influence on instrumental use of pharmacoeconomic information. Research report structure and researcher-user interaction were also found to be significant predictors of use. The results of this study indicated that pharmacoeconomic information was applied frequently by most hospitals in performing routine drug therapy management tasks, such as deleting drugs from the formulary. The results also indicated that hospitals used pharmacoeconomic information sparingly in performing high involvement tasks, such as deciding whether drugs should be on prior authorization.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
III, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Pharmaceuticals|Marketing|Health care
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