Patients’ attitudes in Bulgaria towards electronic prescriptions and digital solutions

Electronic prescription (e-prescription) is part of digital solutions in healthcare. Studies have shown the benefits of electronic prescriptions, such as easier communication, fewer errors, reduced costs, and improved access to prescription history. Furthermore, studies were conducted in Bulgaria to examine patient experience with electronic prescribing, but they were conducted before the introduction and at the very beginning and are therefore insufficiently researched. This study examines patients’ opinions towards electronic prescriptions and digital solutions, focusing on the period following the introduction of E-prescription in Bulgaria. It was conducted in 2025 using an anonymous questionnaire consisting of two panels, distributed via Google Forms. The data analysis includes descriptive statistics, χ² test, Fisher test, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis H test, as well as the post-hoc Dunn test. We accepted the level of significance of the null hypothesis at p < 0.05 with a 95% confidence interval. The results show that, out of 241 respondents, over half (54.8%, n = 132) expressed a positive opinion towards electronic prescriptions of medications. The correlation analysis of Spearman rank showed statistically significant negative relationships between age and all aspects of digital pharmaceutical services studied. With increasing age, patients become skeptical about conducting online consultations (ρ = −0.172; p = 0.019) and are also less likely to purchase medications online without a prescription (ρ = −0.152; p = 0.038). This study could serve as a resource for healthcare institutions to educate patients on the use of mobile health applications.