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Article History

Received: 24 December 2024

Accepted: 14 May 2026

First Online: 1 June 2026

Declarations

:

: This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and the European General Data Protection Regulation and its transposition into national legislation. The Regional Health Administration (‘Administração Regional de Saúde,’ or ARS Centro) approved the trial (which included provisions for qualitative research) on 09-02-2017, following the opinion of its Ethics Committee (‘Comissão de Ética para a Saúde’ of ARS Centro) on 01-02-2017 for studies involving humans. The Ethics Committee ‘Instituto de Bioética’ of Universidade Católica Portuguesa also approved the study (Ethical Screening Report 02/2018) on 20-03-2018.Written informed consent was obtained from trial participants prior to the onset of the trial and reconfirmed for focus group patients prior to the focus group.

: Not applicable.

: The authors report the following conflicts of interest: SC and MR were employed by the Associação Nacional das Farmácias (ANF) at the time of the focus group until December 2019 and August 2024, respectively. SR is employed by the ANF. MG reports consulting fees from ANF for conducting the focus group. JV, IMG, and EFM declare they have no known conflicts of interest. The funder had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.