Effects of Demographic Characteristics and Consumer Behavior in the selection of Retail Pharmacies and Over-the-Counter Medicine

Importance of the (a) pharmacy staff in the choice of pharmacy across educational level and occupation, importance of the (b) product's advertisement and the (c) pharmacist's opinion in the choice of over-the-counter medicine across occupation_

Variable	Educational level	n	Mean	SD
(a) Pharmacy staff	Primary school	15	4.33	1.39
	Gymnasium (lower secondary)	45	4.55	0.69
	Lyceum (upper secondary)	110	4.20	0.92
	University	90	3.95	1.06
	Post-graduate	25	4.16	0.80
	Doctorate	12	4.50	0.52
	Total	297	4.19	0.96
	Occupation
(a) Pharmacy staff	Student	15	3.60	1.12
	Unemployed	33	3.63	1.24
	Homemaker	42	4.33	0.75
	Part-time worker	20	3.90	0.91
	Full-time worker	87	4.18	0.99
	Self-employed	18	3.83	0.78
	Retired	84	4.63	0.67
	Total	299	4.20	0.96
	Occupation
(b) Product's advertisement	Student	15	2.93	1.22
	Unemployed	34	2.82	1.35
	Homemaker	42	2.92	1.31
	Part-time worker	20	3.05	1.23
	Full-time worker	87	3.28	1.04
	Self-employed	18	2.33	1.13
	Retired	84	2.84	1.19
	Total	300	2.97	1.20
(c) Pharmacist's opinion	Student	15	3.93	0.59
	Unemployed	34	4.05	0.98
	Homemaker	42	4.52	0.77
	Part-time worker	20	4.20	0.69
	Full-time worker	86	4.31	0.77
	Self-employed	18	4.00	0.76
	Retired	84	4.47	0.71
	Total	299	4.31	0.78

Spearman's correlations among factors influencing (a) the choice of pharmacy and (b) the purchase of OTC medicine_

(a) Pharmacy criteria	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
The pharmacy's location (1)	-
The pharmacy staff (2)	0.29**	-
The product range (3)	0.26**	0.25**	-
The additional services (4)	0.15**	0.25**	0.40**	-
The membership programme (5)	0.04ns	0.21**	0.22**	0.46**	-
Anonymity/confidentiality (6)	0.11ns	0.35**	0.30**	0.29**	0.22**	-
The store's atmosphere (7)	0.22**	0.40**	0.39**	0.35**	0.21**	0.41**	-
The opening hours (8)	0.30**	0.19**	0.21**	0.21**	0.18**	0.22**	0.27**	-
(b) OTC product criteria	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
The drug's country of origin (1)	-
The manufacturing company (2)	0.77**	-
Packaging (3)	0.36**	0.38**	-
Experience of a previous use (4)	0.26**	0.28**	0.13*	-
The product's advertisement (5)	0.01ns	0.06ns	0.29**	0.11ns	-
The pharmacist's opinion (6)	0.05ns	0.06ns	0.02ns	0.18**	0.13*	-
Family's/friends’ opinion (7)	0.01ns	0.06ns	0.17**	0.10ns	0.38**	0.21**	-
The product's price (8)	0.07ns	0.09ns	0.19**	0.05ns	0.00ns	0.30**	0.15**	-

(a) Tendency to make purchases in a single pharmacy across educational level and occupation; (b) relationship with the pharmacy staff across occupation; (c) purchase patterns of over-the-counter medicine across educational level; (d) unscheduled purchases of over-the-counter medicine across gender and occupation_

(a) ‘I tend to make my purchases in a single pharmacy’
Educational level	Yes, always	Yes, most of the time	No, I make my purchases in various pharmacies	Total
Primary school	11 (73.3%)	3 (20.0%)	1 (6.7%)	15 (100.0%)
Gymnasium (lower secondary)	21 (46.7%)	19 (42.2%)	5 (11.1%)	45 (100.0%)
Lyceum (upper secondary)	32 (29.1%)	50 (45.5%)	28 (25.5%)	110 (100.0%)
University	24 (26.7%)	41 (45.6%)	25 (27.8%)	90 (100.0%)
Post-graduate	3 (12.0%)	10 (56.0%)	8 (32.0%)	25 (100.0%)
Doctorate	3 (25.0%)	6 (50.0%)	3 (25.0%)	12 (100.0%)
Total	94 (31.6%)	133 (44.8%)	70 (23.6%)	297 (100.0%)
Occupation	Yes, always	Yes, most of the time	No, I make my purchases in various pharmacies	Total
Student	1 (6.7%)	8 (53.3%)	6 (40.0%)	15 (100.0%)
Unemployed	5 (14.7%)	14 (41.2%)	15 (44.1%)	34 (100.0%)
Homemaker	14 (34.1%)	18 (43.9%)	9 (22.0%)	41 (100.0%)
Part-time worker	4 (20.0%)	8 (40.0%)	8 (40.0%)	20 (100.0%)
Full-time worker	16 (18.4%)	46 (52.9%)	25 (28.7%)	87 (100.0%)
Self-employed	3 (16.7%)	10 (55.6%)	5 (27.8%)	18 (100.0%)
Retired	52 (61.9%)	30 (35.7%)	2 (2.4%)	84 (100.0%)
Total	95 (31.8%)	134 (44.8%)	70 (23.4%)	299 (100.0%)
(b) ‘Regarding my relationship with the pharmacy staff’
Occupation	I want it to be familiar	I want it to be formal	I don’t want the staff to recognise me	Total
Student	3 (20.0%)	12 (80.0%)	0 (0.0%)	15 (100.0%)
Unemployed	17 (50.0%)	14 (41.2%)	3 (8.8%)	34 (100.0%)
Homemaker	28 (68.3%)	11 (26.8%)	2 (4.9%)	41 (100.0%)
Part-time worker	13 (65.0%)	7 (35.0%)	0 (0.0%)	20 (100.0%)
Full-time worker	57 (65.5%)	25 (28.7%)	5 (5.7%)	87 (100.0%)
Self-employed	13 (72.2%)	5 (27.8%)	0 (0.0%)	18 (100.0%)
Retired	75 (89.3%)	7 (8.3%)	2 (2.4%)	84 (100.0%)
Total	206 (68.9%)	81 (27.1%)	12 (4.0%)	299 (100.0%)
(c) ‘When I purchase an over-the-counter drug, I usually’
Educational level	I know exactly what I need	I know approximately what I need	I don’t know what I need	Total
Primary school	12 (80.0%)	0 (0.0%)	3 (20.0%)	15 (100.0%)
Gymnasium (lower secondary)	23 (51.1%)	21 (46.7%)	1 (2.2%)	45 (100.0%)
Lyceum (upper secondary)	57 (51.4%)	49 (44.1%)	5 (4.5%)	111 (100.0%)
University	42 (48.3%)	43 (49.4%)	2 (2.3%)	87 (100.0%)
Post-graduate	14 (56.0%)	11 (44.0%)	0 (0.0%)	25 (100.0%)
Doctorate	7 (58.3%)	5 (41.7%)	0 (0.0%)	12 (100.0%)
Total	155 (52.5%)	129 (43.7%)	11 (3.7%)	295 (100.0%)
(d) ‘When I am in a pharmacy, I tend to make unscheduled purchases of over-the-counter drugs’
Gender	Yes, often	Yes, sometimes	No, never	Total
Female	8 (4.4%)	96 (52.5%)	79 (43.2%)	183 (100.0%)
Male	8 (7.0%)	43 (37.7%)	63 (55.3%)	114 (100.0%)
Total	16 (5.4%)	139 (46.8%)	142 (47.8%)	297 (100.0%)
Occupation	Yes, often	Yes, sometimes	No, never	Total
Student	0 (0.0%)	7 (46.7%)	8 (53.3%)	15 (100.0%)
Unemployed	4 (12.1%)	14 (42.4%)	15 (45.5%)	33 (100.0%)
Homemaker	5 (11.9%)	25 (59.5%)	12 (28.6%)	42 (100.0%)
Part-time worker	1 (5.0%)	12 (60.0%)	7 (35.0%)	20 (100.0%)
Full-time worker	0 (0.0%)	42 (48.8%)	44 (51.2%)	86 (100.0%)
Self-employed	1 (5.6%)	8 (44.4%)	9 (50.0%)	18 (100.0%)
Retired	5 (6.0%)	31 (37.3%)	47 (56.6%)	83 (100.0%)
Total	16 (5.4%)	139 (46.8%)	142 (47.8%)	297 (100.0%)

Importance of the (a) product's country of origin, (b) manufacturing company and (c) the pharmacist's opinion in the choice of over-the-counter medicine across income level_

Variables	Income	n	Mean	SD
(a) Product's country of origin	Under 400 €	86	3.39	1.22
	400–800 €	96	3.48	1.20
	801–1200 €	77	3.93	1.13
	1201–1600 €	24	3.91	0.88
	1601–2000 €	9	3.55	1.13
	Over 2000 €	6	4.33	0.81
	Total	298	3.63	1.17
(b) Product's manufacturing company	Under 400 €	86	3.29	1.28
	400–800 €	95	3.24	1.26
	801–1200 €	77	3.87	1.03
	1201–1600 €	24	3.87	0.89
	1601–2000 €	9	3.88	1.16
	Over 2000 €	6	4.16	0.98
	Total	297	3.50	1.20
(c) Pharmacist's opinion	Under 400 €	86	4.18	0.86
	400–800 €	96	4.44	0.73
	801–1200 €	78	4.42	0.71
	1201–1600 €	24	4.04	0.75
	1601–2000 €	9	4.22	0.83
	Over 2000 €	6	3.83	0.98
	Total	299	4.31	0.78