ArticleSocial science & medicine (1982)2019
Managing uncertainty in medicine quality in Ghana: The cognitive and affective basis of trust in a high-risk, low-regulation context.
Article in Social science & medicine (1982), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Challenges and best practices in essential medicines supply and use in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps: A qualitative study.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2026Article
- The urgent need for African research collaboration on medicine quality.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Article
- Logics of acquiring medicines from informal retailers in four African countries.Global health action · 2025Article
- Transnational Criminal Enterprise: a Qualitative Social Network Analysis of the Production and Trade in Falsified Medicines.Archives europeennes de sociologie. European journal of sociology. Europaisches Archiv fur Soziologie · 2025Article
- Can public education campaigns equitably counter the use of substandard and falsified medical products in African countries?Health policy and planning · 2025Article
- Inaccurate labelling practices in probiotic products: A regulatory shortfall in Accra, Ghana.PloS one · 2025Article
- The role of constraints and information gaps in driving risky medicine purchasing practices in four African countries.Health policy and planning · 2024Article
- Challenges in the distribution of antimicrobial medications in community dispensaries in Accra, Ghana.PloS one · 2024Article
- A narrative review on problems in product quality, regulatory system constraints, and the concept of quality by design as a solution for quality assurance of African medicines.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Review
- Exploring the operations of itinerant medicine sellers within urban bus terminals in Kumasi, Ghana.Health policy OPEN · 2023Article
- Antimalarial stocking decisions among medicine retailers in Ghana: implications for quality management and control of malaria.BMJ global health · 2023Article
- Insights from a qualitative study of the procurement and manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients in India.BMJ global health · 2023Review
- Antihypertensive medicine use differs between Ghana and Nigeria.BMC cardiovascular disorders · 2022Article
- Variations in regulations to control standards for training and licensing of physicians: a multi-country comparison.Human resources for health · 2021Article
- Elusive quality: the challenges and ethical dilemmas faced by international non-governmental organisations in sourcing quality assured medical products.BMJ global health · 2021Review
- Monitoring, reporting and regulating medicine quality: tensions between theory and practice in Tanzania.BMJ global health · 2021Article
- Contested or complementary healing paradigms? Women's narratives of COVID-19 remedies in Mwanza, Tanzania.Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine · 2021Article
- Comparative Quality Evaluation of Selected Brands of Cefuroxime Axetil Tablets Marketed in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.TheScientificWorldJournal · 2021Article
- Is enhancing the professionalism of healthcare providers critical to tackling antimicrobial resistance in low- and middle-income countries?Human resources for health · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Where regulation is weak, medicine transactions can be characterised by uncertainty over the drug quality and efficacy, with buyers shouldering the greater burden of risk in exchanges that are typically asymmetric. Drawing on in-depth interviews (N = 220) and observations of medicine transactions, plus interviews with regulators (N = 20), we explore how people in Ghana negotiate this uncertainty and come to trust a medicine enough to purchase or ingest it. We identify two mechanisms - attempts to mitigate uncertainty through seeking observable signs of quality and attempts to reduce informational asymmetry - that underpin cognitive assessments of a medicine's trustworthiness. However, these 'cognitive' forms of trust assessment have limited traction where uncertainty is high and trustworthiness remains unknowable, so a third mechanism comes into play: one based on affective relationships within which transactions are socially embedded. Even these, however, cannot eliminate uncertainty, because of the dispersed and under-regulated nature of wider supply chains. In conclusion, we reflect on the need for careful research on actors' practices and decision-making across supply chains to inform more effective policy and regulation.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.