Table 3.

Medication-related beliefs in three subthemes of the original model of patients’ lived experience with medicines (PLEM) and the influencing factors of each subtheme

Medication-related beliefs subthemes (PLEM model)	Influencing factors*	Participant expressions translated from Finnish
Influence of family, healthcare providers, and public opinion on patients’ beliefs	Influence of healthcare providers (n=5) Influence of family and peers (n=5) Influence of social media and the rest of the community (n=5)	My doctor once told me that when my asthma is in balance for six months, then I can think about adjusting those medicines. And I haven’t had that half a year in the last year, so that’s what I’m waiting for now, that if it comes at some point, I’ll probably talk with the doctor. Or probably in the autumn, I’ll consult with him when I see him to see if there’s any reason to start experimenting a bit to see if I would get along with a bit less? (F1A)†
Medication-related burden intensity and individuals’ coping skills	The intensity of the burden influences the individual’s experience of the controllability of medication therapy (n=5) The intensity of the burden influences the individual’s activities (n=3)	I sometimes have moments like that when I think I want to throw the insulins out the window, which of course I don’t really do and I never fail to inject, but sometimes I do get that mild tiredness. (F2D)†
Individuals’ general attitude towards medicine	Positive attitudes (n=5) Negative attitudes (n=3)	So, I'm terribly positive about medicine, and I want to believe that if it’s, for example, a biological medicine, that in general it does. I hope that, in general, at least tolerable treatment can be found for people even in difficult life situations. What I have seen up close are really difficult situations. However, they have been resolved to a tolerable level. (F2A)†

*The parentheses show the number of focus group discussions where the factor was raised. Italics indicate a new component that emerged from the focus groups compared with the original model.

†In the participant codes, the first letter reflects the gender (F, female; M, male), the number reflects each unique participant in each condition group, and the last letter indicates the condition group (A, asthma; D, diabetes; H, heart diseases; I, intestinal diseases).