Perceptions of Bruneian clients about online medicine information

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the perceptions ofclients in Brunei Darussalam about online medicineinformation and to investigate determinants for the use ofpreferred medicine-related websites.Methods: Bruneian clients who met the eligibility criteriawere purposively sampled and asked to fill out a structuredquestionnaire. An in-depth interview was also conducted totriangulate the survey data.Results: A total of 189 respondents completed the survey withthe response rate of 75.6%. Half of the medicine informationseekers (55.6%) were women and mostly between the age of18 and 49 years. The majority of the respondents (90.5%)accessed the Internet from home, and 49.2% spentapproximately 1 to 2 hours searching for the requiredmedicine information. They mostly perceived searching onlinemedicine information was speedy and convenient (84.7%).Information on side effects and indications of drugs (87.3%and 79.4%) was largely sought on the Internet. Mostrespondents (79.4%) were satisfied with the retrievedmedicine information. Determinants for the use of medicinerelatedwebsites were not detected.Conclusions: Clients conveniently obtained medicineinformation from the Internet aside from seeking advice fromphysicians and pharmacists. Their online medicineinformation needs and information reliability merit furtherstudies