Table 2.

Patients’ beliefs about medicines

BMQ subscale	Mean score (SD)	Median (range)	N (%) above the scale midpoint
Necessity^a	19.7 (3.3)	20 (8 to 25)	180 (96.3)
Concerns^a	12.8 (3.9)	12 (5 to 22)	62 (33.9)
Necessity–concern differential^b	6.9 (5.3)	69 (−4 to 20)	94
General overuse^c	10.9 (2.9)	11 (4 to 20)	10 (5.4)
General harm^c	9.8 (2.9)	10 (4 to 20)	5 (2.7)

↵a Scale from 5 to 25 where high scores indicate strong belief.
↵b Scale from −20 to 20 where positive scores indicate patient perceives benefits outweigh risks.
↵c Scale from 4 to 20 where high scores indicate negative attitude towards medicines. BMQ = Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire.