Automedicación en comerciantes minoristas de la Asociación Hermano Miguel del mercado “El Arenal”, Cuenca, 2017

Abstract

BACKGROUND: according to the World Health Organization (WHO), responsible self-medication is the rational use of medicines which are approved and available without prescription. On the other hand, self-prescription refers to any conduct that aims to obtain medicaments without medical prescription given by a doctor or health expert, thereby resulting in the abusive use of said medicaments1. OBJECTIVE: this research aims to determine the causes for self-medication present in the retailer merchants that belong to the “Hermano Miguel” association of the “El Arenal” marketplace, Cuenca, 2017. METHODOLOGY: this is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The participants involved were 200 retailer merchants. Surveys were used as the technique for gathering information; all participants were informed in advance and consented to this. The instrument that the authors used was a form they validated in advance. The collected data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and presented in tables with their respective descriptive analyzes. This research followed the ethical standards of the Faculty of Medical Sciences. RESULTS: out of the 200 people who participated in the survey, 118 (59,00%) self-medicate. Women make up the largest portion out of the participants who self-medicate, making up for the 41,50% of the total of participants. The age range for people who self-medicate the most goes from 20 to 39 years old, which makes up for the 30.50% of participants. The medicaments that were used most commonly by participants were analgesics and anti-inflammatories. Headaches were the most common symptom leading to self-medication, with an outstanding 29,00%. Finally, 81,35% of the participants bought said medication at pharmacies. CONCLUSIONS: The most common reason for self-medication was having had a previous prescription for symptoms they were familiar with