Determinants of doctors’ prescribing behaviour for pharmaceutical drugs: empirical evidence from the medical sector in Zimbabwe.

Abstract

The purpose of our study is to interrogate the determinants of doctors’ prescribing behaviour in developing countries using Zimbabwean medical sector as the testing ground. Posivitism research paradigm and a cross section research design were adopted. The sampling frame was 656 medical practitioners out of which a sample size of 100 was used. Structured questionnaires were used as data collection tools. Ddescriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was conducted and specifically Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to test the hypotheses. The study’s key findings indicated a significant positive relationship between doctors’ prescribing behaviour and medical representatives’ information and marketing activities. The results also showed a positive influence of the doctor’s specialisation on his/ her prescribing behaviour.