Table 3.

Patient identified barriers involved in the medication decision-making process (n = 51).

#	Responses	No. Groups Selecting	No. Votes	No. Votes Weighted			Sum of Weighted Votes	Percent of Weighted Votes
#	Responses	No. Groups Selecting	No. Votes	3^*	2^*	1^*	Sum of Weighted Votes	Percent of Weighted Votes
1	Side effects — concerns about known or potential	6	18	12	5	1	47	15.36
2	Uncertainty about the medication effectiveness and if it works for me	6	9	2	2	5	15	4.90
3	Medication costs and affordability	5	11	4	6	1	25	8.17
4	Worrying about gaining weight	5	10	2	3	5	17	5.56
5	Worrying about “really bad” side effects, what it might do to my vital organs, and whether it causes other diseases	4	9	2	6	1	19	6.21
6	The bad way the medication makes me feel	4	7	1	2	4	11	3.59
7	Complicated and inconvenient ways of taking medications	4	6	1	2	3	10	3.27
8	Increased risk of health problems associated with taking medications	4	9	7	1	1	24	7.84
9	Having the medication interfere with “normal life”	4	6	2	2	2	12	3.92
10	Worrying about problems the medication could have on pregnancy and being pregnant	4	7	1	2	4	11	3.59
11	Denial of your condition	4	4	1	2	1	8	2.61
12	Already take a bunch of medications and do not want to take another one	3	5	0	2	3	7	2.29
13	Concern about longterm consequences or risks of taking medications	3	6	4	1	1	15	4.90
14	If the medication interacts with other medications that are currently being taken	3	4	1	1	2	7	2.29
15	Not having enough information about the medication	3	4	1	1	2	7	2.29
16	Having to take it for a long time	3	4	1	1	2	7	2.29
17	Not having confidence/trust in my doctor	3	3	0	0	3	3	0.98
18	Getting a swollen face from the medicine	2	3	2	0	1	7	2.29
19	Have difficulties in taking large pills	2	3	2	0	1	7	2.29
20	Hearing that someone else had a bad experience from taking the medication	2	4	0	2	2	6	1.96
21	If the medicine makes another condition worse	2	2	1	1	0	5	1.63
22	Worrying about drug dependency or becoming addicted	2	2	1	1	0	5	1.63
23	Not wanting to have mood swings/depression/anxiety	2	2	1	1	0	5	1.63
24	Do not like injection	2	2	0	2	0	4	1.31
25	Responsibility and ability to take medication as prescribed	2	2	0	0	2	2	0.65
26	Physical complications	1	2	1	1	0	5	1.63
27	Knowing that it will interfere with my sleep	1	3	0	1	2	4	1.31
28	Patients not caring about their health	1	1	1	0	0	3	0.98
29	Not wanting to lose my hair	1	1	0	1	0	2	0.65
30	Thinking that there may be alternatives or something else I could take	1	1	0	1	0	2	0.65
31	Having difficulties explaining everything to your family and wondering if they will understand and support you	1	1	0	1	0	2	0.65
32	Fearful of taking the medicine	1	1	0	0	1	1	0.33
33	It takes too long to start working	1	1	0	0	1	1	0.33
	Total	93	153	51	51	51	306	100.00

↵* Patient participants assigned a weighted vote to each of 3 selected responses to reflect perceived importance as a barrier (i.e., 3 = most important to 1 = third most important).