%0 Journal Article %T Cost-conscious medications-prescribing behavior among physicians working in Saudi Arabia %A Hussain Abdulrahman Al-Omar %J Archives of Pharmacy Practice %@ 2320-5210 %D 2020 %V 11 %N 1 %P 143-152 %X Background: Pharmaceutical costs are the fastest-growing healthcare expense in most countries, meaning that physicians are required to adopt cost-conscious behavior in their medication prescribing practice. This study aimed to assess the levels of cost-consciousness and the familiarity with cost concepts among physicians working in Saudi Arabia.  Methods: This was a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study conducted in the period from May to October 2019. It included physicians employed in Saudi Arabia in different workplaces and settings.  Results: A total of 239 physicians responded to the survey, about 85% of whom had never received any formal education or training in health economics or pharmacoeconomics. Almost all of them (94%) agreed that physicians need to take a more prominent role in limiting the use of unnecessary medications and three-quarters (75.3%) of them agreed that trying to contain medications cost is the responsibility of every physician. The factors that were found to affect cost-consciousness behavior were gender, as well as knowledge of and familiarity with cost-effectiveness as one of the economic evaluation concepts. Higher cost-consciousness was observed among those who were knowledgeable about the terms cost-containment (p=0.039) and cost-effectiveness (p=0.002) and who were familiar with the concept of cost-effectiveness (p %U https://archivepp.com/article/cost-conscious-medications-prescribing-behavior-among-physicians-working-in-saudi-arabia