Table 4.

Influencing factors for medication-taking practices (acceptance or modification of the medication)

Medication-taking practices (PLEM model)	Influencing factors*	Participants’ expressions translated from Finnish
Accepting medication and following therapeutic instructions	Medicines improve health and enable an almost normal life (n=5) Adaptation to medication and its routines (n=5) Trust in healthcare providers (n=4) Willingness to live encourages one to take the medication (n=3) The illness forces one to take the medication (n=3) Acceptance after first trying to modify the medication (n=2)	Well, at least I feel pretty much the same way, in a way, those medicines now enable me to have the same normal and good life. If I thought about what my life would be like if I didn’t use medicines, then I wouldn’t have any life. (F4D)†
Modifying or altering medication/therapeutic care plans	Modification due to the intensity of the medication-related burden (n=3) Adjusting the dose by oneself is a part of the self-management of the condition (n=3) Modifying based on the experiences of others (n=1) Modifying to fit into one’s schedule (n=1)	I’ve been a bit stubborn, perhaps foolishly, that as with other medications, I kind of like titrate it myself, so as to how can I be on as little as possible? (N3A)†

*The parentheses show the number of focus group discussions where the factor was raised.

†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).

PLEM, patients’ lived experience with medicine.