Background to the study

Prescription medication sharing means giving some of your prescription medicine to someone, such as a family member, friend, work colleague or neighbour to use or someone giving you some of their prescription medicine for you to use. Some studies have shown that around 50% of adults have shared prescription medicines.

Medications are often shared with friends or family for good reasons such as to help relieve symptoms, make people feel better or to save time visiting a healthcare professional. There has been no research in the UK on prescription medication sharing.

This study will help us understand why people share their medication, the types of medication they share, when they share, and who they share with. Knowing the reasons why people share their medicines will help us to make recommendations for improvements in patient care and how people access prescription medications.

What does the study involve?

Members of the public: We will interview you about your experiences of sharing/lending/borrowing prescription medication.

Healthcare professionals: We will interview you if you have a role in medicines management and learn about your experiences of prescription medication sharing.  

We will record the interview using an audio-recorder. Once the recording is transcribed (written down), it will be erased. Any information identifying you will be removed from the transcript so that you cannot be identified.

For more information about this project, please download the ‌Participant Information Sheet (Office document, 194kB)‌

If you are interested in participating in the study please complete the Consent Form (Office document, 59kB)‌‌ and email it to Dr Shoba Dawson at shoba.dawson@bristol.ac.uk or Dr Deborah McCahon at deborah.mccahon@bristol.ac.uk