Patients’ use of and attitudes towards self-medication in rural and remote Slovenian family medicine practices: a cross-sectional multicentre study

Abstract

A B S T R A C TIntroduction: Self-medication is very common in the general population, but its prevalence can differ according to the place of residence. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of self-medication in patients attending rural and remote family physicians, and to detect the important factors that are associated with it. Methods: A cross-sectional multicentre study was performed in 24 rural and remote family medicine practices in Slovenia was performed. The aim was to include 720 patients who visited their family physicians on a particular day. The authors used a validated questionnaire on self-medication, which consisted of questions about demographic characteristics (sex, age, education and working status), questions about health status, questions about self-medication practices, and questions about attitudes towards selfmedication. The level of participants' trust in different sources of medical information was measured by a five-point Likert scale. The participants were asked to take into account the year 2013 when completing the questionnaire. Results: Of 720 invited patients, 371 (51.5%) completed the questionnaire. There were 233 (62.8%) women in the sample. The mean age of the participants was 48.1 (±15.1) years. Self-medication was practised by 300 (80.9%) participants. In multivariate analysis, the variables independently associated with self-medication were information on self-medication obtained from pharmacists, and information on self-medication obtained from relatives. Additionally, some other variables had high odds ratios such as information on self-medication obtained from books, information on self-medication obtained from media, and reason for self-medication: burdening physicians.© Z Klemenc-Ketis, D Mitrovic, 2017. A Licence to publish this material has been given to James Cook University, http://www.jcu.edu.au 2 Conclusions: The practices of self-medication in rural Slovenia as reported by patients can be defined as moderately safe. People tend to seek more information on self-medication but the main sources for this are lay informants. Further studies are needed to explore the safety of such practices.

<p>Socioeconomic Inequality in Self-Medication in Iran: Cross-Sectional Analyses at the National and Subnational Levels</p>

“…The use of medicines without physician supervision for diagnosis and/or treatment 32,33 is a common problem and one of the health concerns worldwide. Despite several efforts to reduce SM, the practice of SM is significantly higher among developing countries.…”

“…The prevalence of SM among Iranian household in the last month was found to be 18.2%. The magnitude of SM practice was found to be 23.3% in Egypt, 35 51% in Slovenia, 32 25.4% in the United States, 36 27.5% in Kuwait, 37 7.3% in Indonesia, and 11.9% in India. 38,39 The reasons for the variation in the practice of SM across different countries and regions could be due to the levels of awareness about the rational use of drugs, accessibility of modern health facilities, cultural preferences and beliefs of the study participants.…”

“…44 Several studies have reported a significant positive relationship between old age and the practice of SM in different countries. 32,33,40,45 Klemenc & Kersnik 45 reported that older adults use SM because they usually have more chronic diseases. Some limitations should be considered when interpreting the findings of the current study.…”

Self-care of chronic musculoskeletal pain – experiences and attitudes of patients and health care providers

“…Patients are dissatisfied because they wait long for health services, are far from their physicians, and sometimes working hours of doctor’s office do not suit them [ 46 , 47 ]. Reasons for self-care lie also in patient’s distrust of physicians, while, on the other hand, patients sometimes do not want to bother physicians, particularly if the cause of pain is already known [ 48 ]. The self-care is also a method of choice in cases where conventional medicine failed, or its methods have already been exhausted.…”

“…According to results of Nagarajaiah et al [ 36 ], important sources of information about self-care with medications are family members and relatives, followed by healthcare providers and pharmacists. A study carried out in Slovenia demonstrated that relatives and pharmacists were the most common sources of information and tips about self-care, and that self-care was more frequent among younger subjects and those with higher educational level [ 48 , 58 ].…”