Study On Self-Medication Behavior Of The Citizens

ObjectivesMore and more citizens self-medicate for their minor ailments at present, however, there are many health risks in their self-medication, for they are ignorant of pharmacodynamics and the adverse drug reaction with limited drug knowledge, and they can not understand drug use instructions rightly and use dugs according to it during self-medication.Hence, intervention measures must be carried out to reduce the health risks. The study is ready to investigate the characteristics,structure,influencing factors and health risks of the self-medication behavior of the citizens from the view of behavior science and discuss the behavior intervention strategies of self-medication with the theories and methods of health promotion. It can give policy referrence for the government and theory guidance for the intervention which is importance for the citizens to use drug rationally.MethodsThe study applied quantitive and qualitative methods, the literature data derived from the periodical discourse,the monograph,the collection of polices and regular health register.The questionnaire survey selected Wuhan city as the field and the citizens who had self-medicated for the ailments over 18 years old as the object , with the stratified random sampling ,the questionnaire survey sampled 6 communities and 4 drug stores and reclaimed 656 valid questionnaires all together. The softwares of Epidata3.0,SPSS12.0 was used in data analysis with descriptive statistics,χ2 test and Logistic regression. The qualitative data derived from the behavior observation of the citizens in self-medication, in-depth interview with the employees and pharmacists of the drugstores.Results1.The primary self-diagnose base is individual experience(66.2%),others are consultation to the employee of the drugstore(14.8%)and drug instructions(6.3%),the citizens of low education degree or the older are apt to self-diagnose by individual experience more, while the younger based on consultation to employee of the drugstore and drug advertisement more and high education degree citizens based on book/magazine/net more in self-diagnose.There are 83.8% citizens notice the production date and period of validity when they bought medicines, 87.5% of them read the instruction before dosing, while 30.1% of them understood it entirely. The older and the low education degree did not like to read the instructions. 13.7% of them dosed mistakenly, 65.2% stop dosing when they felt better. The citizens of low education degree did not consider the storage conditions when they save the residual medication.2. The medication knowledge of the citizens of high education degree was more significantly than which of the citizens of low education degree. There were pertinence between the knowledge and the behavior, the group of higher score in knowledge had the more safe behavior than the group of lower score.Worse self-efficacy and self-confidence were the risk factors for self-medication; right knowledge of dosing pose was the protected factor. There were relationship between the medical insurance condition and the medicine purchase in appointed drugstore where the expenses can be compensated.3. 52.9%of the sample replaced drug frequently,57.0%prolong or shorten the period of treatment and 55.2%added or reduced the dosage during using drug,especially the youger and the higher in education;30.2%had the mistakes in self-diagnose, 15.6% chose the improper medicine because of the advertisement, 11.7% used drug inappropriately for misunderstanding the drug instructions;26.8%used the different medicines with the same indications at one time, 23.8% used the drugs with the same generic but different brand names at one time;19.7% abused febrifuge and anodyne,42.4%abused antibiotics ; 13.3% misused drug because they were regardless of the contraindication in the instructions,16.0%did not consider the dietetic taboo during dosing, especially the younger.35.7%did not consider the physical characteristic of himself during self-medication;37.2%had drug harm on health besides the side-effect of the drug itself during self-medication, especially the older.4. The result of Logistic regression shows that few mistakes in self-diagnose was the protected factor of self-medication, while prescription drugs can be bought without prescription and used the drugs with the same generic but different brand names at one time were the risky factors of self-medication.Conclusions and SuggestionsThe research brought forward behavior intervention suggestions as following:1. Reinforce the education on the knowledge of self-medication to the citizens.2. Implement the self-management of the behavior, mold the low-risk self-medication behavior of the citizens.3. Intensity the distribution management of prescription drugs, popularize the GPP.4. Exert adequately the function of pharmaceutical care of the certified pharmacist in the drugstore, fabricate drug use record for the citizens.5. Potentiate supervision and management of drug advertisements, the government promulgate the authoritative information about medicines.6. Standardize the format and content of drug instructions, spark plug the right-using of the instructions.