Status of self-medication and the relevant factors regarding drug efficacy and safety as important considerations among adolescents aged 12-18 in China: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Self-medication is widely practiced among adolescents, and inappropriate self-medication can cause irreversible damage to adolescents' health. The attributes of over-the-counter medications influence adolescents' behavior when self-medicating. Method: Multi-stage sampling was used to conduct a questionaire investigation in Mainland China in 2021. The questionnaire contains sociodemographic characteristics and several scales, the presence of self-medication behavior and the types of drugs they self-medicated, and important considerations when self-medicating. After a statistical description of the data, logistic regression were used to analyse the factors related to the types of drugs in self-medication as well as the consideration of drug efficacy and safety Result: 1065 questionnaires were returned and 969 were valid, with an effective rate of 90.99%. The self-medication rate among Chinese aged 12-18 was 96.61%. 65.84% considered drug safety as an essential consideration, and 58.72% took drug efficacy as an important consideration. The multi-factor regression showed that those with better health care scores were more likely to consider drug efficacy as an essential factor(OR=1.554 P＜0.05);those with high family healthy lifestyle scores were more likely to focus on efficacy(OR=1.483 P<0.05). Family health status and monthly per capita household income were associated with whether respondents took drug safety as an important consideration. Those with higher per capita monthly household income (≥$641) were less inclined to consider safety as an essential factor(OR=0.544 P<0.001). Investigators with beller disease prevention were more likely to consider drug safety as an essential factor(OR=2.247 P<0.001);those with better family health resources were more likely to consider drug safety as an essential factor (OR=1.516 P＜0.05). Conclusion: Self-medication is prevalent among 12-18-year-old adolescents in China. Demographic and sociological characteristics, health literacy, and family health status were associated with the likelihood that adolescents would focus on the safety and efficacy of medication when self-medicating. Health literacy and family health status were positively correlated with the likelihood of considering the efficacy and safety of drugs as important factors when self-medicating. Authorities should take measures to regulate adolescents' self-medication behaviour, strengthen health education for adolescents and their supervisors, and improve their health literacy to reduce the harm caused by inappropriate self-medication.