This investigation explores consumer pharmaceutical purchasing behaviors using an extensive data set from Bangladeshi medical supply vendors. Over 29 months, we analyzed 30,947 transactions involving 3,016 unique items. By employing association rule mining, we identified common product purchase combinations and recurrent patterns reflecting customer behavior and market dynamics. We thoroughly analyzed association rules and periodic items to understand how varying support and confidence levels impact rule formation and product recognition. As support levels increase from 0.5% to 5%, fewer but more significant rules emerge, with a fixed support level at 0.75% and confidence at 10%, demonstrating a trade-off between rule quantity and significance. A category-specific analysis shows that higher support levels lead to fewer rules, indicating a greater acceptance of specific products. Through customized algorithms, this study uncovers patterns and trends in pharmaceutical purchases, providing insights that could influence marketing tactics, policy decisions, and stock management in the healthcare retail industry. These results offer a comprehensive understanding of consumer behavior and market demands in a vital sector of Bangladesh’s economy.

Keywords: Association rule, Data mining, Pharmaceuticals, Periodicity, Medicine association, Transactions, Duplicate transaction, Confidence.

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Source of Funding:

This study did not receive any grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Competing Interests Statement:

The authors declare no competing financial, professional, or personal interests.

Consent for publication:

The authors declare that they consented to the publication of this study.

Authors' contributions:

All the authors took part in literature review, analysis and manuscript writing equally.

Acknowledgements:

Authors would like to acknowledge all of their well-wishers and their university environment. Also, authors extend sincere thanks to their coworkers for their insightful critiques, stimulating discussions, and readiness to lend a hand when necessary.