Table 2.

Details of the two scenarios and the demand levels

	Content of the scenarios, backstories and demand levels
SPs/scenarios	The scenarios were established to outline the name, age, gender and home address of the patient and the symptoms s/he presented with
	The two SPs were given an opening line as well as a brief background regarding the patients they would portray
	To reduce the possibility of SPs feeling uncomfortable or being recognized:
	• They were accompanied by one of the researchers (R.N.M.) who acted as a niece in the case of a UTI and as a girlfriend for URTIs to add validity to the characters the SPs were portraying
	• The researcher, in her capacity as niece and/or girlfriend, would draw on her pharmaceutical knowledge in case the SPs were confronted by questions they cannot answer
	The researcher also accompanied the SPs in order to note any extra information, for example, if there is a name on the wall of the pharmacist on duty and the staff
UTIs
backstory	The ‘patient’ is aged 41 years and has come from Thabazimbi for her grandmother’s 80th birthday
	She is married to a man who is 45 years old, who is the sole breadwinner and who is very traditional and very strict
	The female ‘patient’ contracted her UTI from using a public bathroom and fears that her husband will think she had contracted an STI through conducting an extramarital affair during the time she was away
	The fear exists that he will punish her by discontinuing to support her and their three children
	In addition, since the aunt’s husband also funds the niece’s studies, as well as most of her living expenses, the niece also has a vested interest in her ‘aunt’s’ recovery
three levels of demand for antibiotics	• Level 1: the aunt needs to get better before returning home as she knows her husband will think that she slept around and contracted an STI—especially because she was visiting in Gauteng—to validate ‘I need help to alleviate these symptoms.’
	• Level 2: if she does not get better before returning home, her marriage will fall apart—to validate ‘Haven’t you got something stronger?’
	• Level 3: she is very scared that her husband will leave. She grew up poor and she is so afraid that she will end in poverty again—especially due to the fact that her niece has not completed her studies yet and will not be able to look after her yet. She is also very scared that her husband will take the children—to further emphasize ‘I need antibiotics.’
URTIs
backstory	The backstory was approached in the same way
	The SP’s urgency lay in the fact that he would need to return to work within a week’s time
	His concern is that his coworkers would assume that he has AIDS-related TB and he might lose his job—losing his job would mean that he would also lose the possibility of saving for his envisaged wedding with his girlfriend
three levels of demand for antibiotics	This was similar to UTIs, e.g.:
	• Level 1: asking for something that will help alleviate the symptoms
	• Level 2: if the first level of demand was not effective in obtaining an antibiotic, the second level of demand was asking for something stronger
	• Level 3: if neither the first nor second level of demand was effective in obtaining an antibiotic, the SP asked explicitly for an antibiotic to help clear up their URTI

STI, sexually transmitted infection; URTI, upper respiratory tract infection; UTI, urinary tract infection.