Prevalence of automedication in elderly residents in the urban area of almeida license city before risk factors of this practice
International Journal of Development Research
Prevalence of automedication in elderly residents in the urban area of almeida license city before risk factors of this practice
Received 03rd August, 2019; Received in revised form 14th September, 2019; Accepted 11th October, 2019; Published online 30th November, 2019
Copyright © 2019, Maisa Marques Ribeiro et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Self-medication is a very common and worrisome practice practiced by many people and can pose health risks. The elderly represent a higher age group of medicines, which makes it necessary to pay special attention to their self-medication. The consumption of medicines without the guidance of the prescribing professional represents a public health problem, awakening the importance of knowing this practice among the elderly and the risks it may have on their health. This study aims to identify the prevalence of self-medication in elderly residents in the urban area of Licínio de Almeida-BA. A quantitative cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 187 elderly, with data collection from the application of forms. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Office Excel 2013. The research project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee, CAAE 14142019.4.0000. The results showed that the profile of the studied population showed a predominance of female participants with low education. The practice of self-medication had a prevalence of 26.11%. Knowledge of the risks that self-medication can cause or even insecurity to start a drug without medical guidance is presumed to be influential factors for non-self-medication.
