The cost of medical care is constantly increasing. Therefore, ways of savin
g expenses should be considered. The aim of the present study is to evaluat
e the possibility than an awareness of the cost of drugs for treatment of h
ypertension may affect physicians' prescription decisions. A questionnaire
containing the clinical data of a young and an elderly imaginary patient wi
th moderate hypertension was given to 30 family physicians and 30 hospital
physicians together with a list of appropriate drugs (phase I). This was re
peated as phase II except that for this stage the cost of the drugs was bro
ught to the participants' attention. Knowing the cost of the drugs caused a
decrease in prescription of the more expensive drugs for the younger patie
nts; of 60% (family physicians) and 87% (hospital physicians). For their el
derly patients family physicians preferred the less expensive drugs at both
phases. 25% of the hospital doctors changed their preference towards less
expensive drugs at phase II. For the younger patient, no correlation was fo
und between the number of years of physicians' practice and the cost of the
drugs chosen. For the elderly patient, physicians from both groups preferr
ed less expensive drugs at phase II without any relation to their years of
practice. The results of this study indicate that a knowledge of the price
of the drugs may affect physicians' prescription decisions, a fact that may
result in considerable saving by health providing organizations.