ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Digital Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1513338
This article is part of the Research TopicOvercoming Challenges in Health Technology Implementation to Maximize Patient Safety BenefitsView all 6 articles
THE BENEFITS OF ONLINE ACCESS TO PRESCRIPTION MEDICINES: THE EUROPEAN PATIENT'S PERSPECTIVE
Provisionally accepted
- 1Copenhagen Economics, Copenhagen, Denmark
- 2Copenhagen Economics, Brussels, Belgium
- 3Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacy in the EU, Tunbridge Wells, United Kingdom
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Background. In the evolving EU healthcare landscape, online access to prescription medicines is rising. The EU legislation provides a legal framework for safe online access, aligning supply rules with physical pharmacies and providing specific measures against counterfeiting. Eight Member States allow online access to prescription medicines.Objectives. The study aims to understand factors influencing EU citizens' propensity to obtain prescription medicines online.Methods. The online survey was conducted in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Sweden with 1,000 responses per country, to help ensure representatives in terms of age, gender, and macro-region. Parametric tests and regression analysis to control for confounding factors were used. In countries where online access to prescription medicines was allowed, current usage choices and preferences was asked. In countries where online access was not allowed, questions about the intended use and preferences if prescription medicines became available online was asked.. Results. Thirty four percent (34%) of respondents expressed interest in obtaining prescription medicines online. This interest is was slightly higher among people with chronic conditions (36.2%) and their caregivers (41.4%). Respondents facing long distances to pharmacies or perceiving their opening hours as inconvenient expressed a preference for online access. Additionally, a number of respondents believed that online access could improve adherence to prescribed courses of medication. In particular, 64% of the chronically ill respondents who reported adherence problems due to time constraints believed that online access would improve their adherence. In countries where online access was permitted, rates of non-adherence caused by time constraints were 22 percentage points (p < 0.001: 95%CI: 0.153-0.298) lower. An assumption might be therefore made that online access could benefit both caregivers and chronically ill patients, by managing adherence more effectively. Conclusion: Given the findings in this large scale survey and taking in to account the pharmacists interviewed about potential practical barriers, it would seem reasonable for EU Member States who currently prohibit online access to prescription medicines to consider reviewing the current national legislation.
Keywords: Bruno Basalisco: Conceptualization, methodology, Writing -original draft, Writing -review & editing. Christian Jervelund: Conceptualization, supervision, Writing -review & editing. Michael Isles: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing -review & editing. Marco Islam: Formal Analysis
Received: 18 Oct 2024; Accepted: 25 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jervelund, Basalisco, Mejer, Islam, Thorkild Nissen and Isles. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Michael Isles, Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacy in the EU, Tunbridge Wells, United Kingdom
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