Table 2.

Codes and themes

Theme	Examples of codes
1. A need to achieve a specific outcome	Medicines relieve symptoms, help avoid hospitalization, control disease or improve the conditions of daily life10, 23, 24, 25
	Confirmation of effects is sought, and lack of identifiable effects can lead to the medicine being seen as not useful10, 24, 26, 27
	Medicines offer something beyond what is achieved by diet and exercise25, 28
	A medicine prescribed for prevention ‘stops a heart attack’, ‘cures the bones’ or ‘does the job the doctor says need to be done’24, 29
	Benefits with preventive treatments are overestimated30, 31
	Patients wish for guarantees of survival30, 31, 32, 33
2. Experiences and evaluation develop over time	Duration of illness influences understanding of disease and treatment effects26, 34
	Past bad experiences of side‐effects triggers a conscious evaluation of risks and benefits when new treatments are suggested26
	Patients are seeking to confirm and adjust expectations26, 28
	One's own experiences and those of other people are used in decisions about medicines24, 25, 28, 29, 34, 35, 36
	Risks and benefits are balanced by patients in a different way than by doctors26, 29, 30, 31, 32
3. Negative values – dependency, criticism and social stigma	Fear of getting addicted, associations with illicit substance use23, 37
	Hesitancy to be dependent on medicines for a normal life10, 37
	The number of medicines used by one person can be seen as too high26, 27
4. A personalized meaning of medicines; their necessity and usefulness	Medicines for different conditions are seen as being of different value38
	Patients with the same condition express diametrically different views about the treatment: necessary or of very limited value; as something that helps to live normally or the only way to avoid death; as a choice based on experience or a resignation in lack of other options23, 25, 37
	Core health beliefs and notions of responsibility and morality influence decisions24, 25, 26, 39