Table 2.

Beliefs About Medication and Perceived Sensitivity to its Effects for the Entire Sample and Medication Belief Groups (n = 408)

	Sample (n = 408)	Group 1 (Low Need, Lower Concerns) (62%; n = 252)	Group 2 (Low Need, Higher Concerns) (38%; n = 154)
BMQ Specific Necessity Beliefs
1. My current health depends on me taking tamoxifen	19.4	21.4	16.2
2. Without tamoxifen, I could become very ill	18.2	18.1	18.4
3. My future health depends on me taking tamoxifen	22.1	25.3	16.9
BMQ Specific Concern Beliefs
1. Taking tamoxifen would worry me	61.3	56.9	68.6
2. I worry about the long-term effects of tamoxifen	72.4	66.3	82.4
3. Tamoxifen is a mystery to me	22.6	17.7	30.5
4. Taking tamoxifen would disrupt my life	23.8	21.6	27.3
5. I worry I would become dependent on tamoxifen	9.2	6.0	14.5
6. Tamoxifen would give me unpleasant side effects	56.9	52.0	64.9
BMQ General Overuse Beliefs
1. Doctors use too many medicines	28.9	10.4	59.1
2. Natural remedies are safer than medicines	17.0	6.0	35.1
3. Doctors place too much trust in medicines	14.3	2.0	34.4
4. If doctors had more time with patients they would prescribe fewer medicines	35.3	16.7	66.0
BMQ General Harmfulness Beliefs
1. People who take medicines should stop for a while every now and again	23.7	10.8	44.8
2. Most medicines are addictive	13.3	3.2	29.9
3. Medicines do more harm than good	3.2	0.4	7.9
4. All medicines are poisons	5.9	1.2	13.6
PSM
1. My body is very sensitive to medicines	22.8	17.1	32.0
2. My body over-reacts to medicines	8.9	5.2	14.9
3. I usually have stronger reactions to medicines than most people	7.2	4.8	11.0
4. I have had a bad reaction to medicines in the past	24.2	21.0	29.4
5. Even very small amounts of medicines can upset my body	10.7	8.0	15.0

Data are the percentage who agreed or strongly agreed with each statement; reference category: strongly disagree, disagree, and unsure.

Abbreviations: BMQ = Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire; PSM = Perceived Sensitivity to Medicines Scale.