Factors Contributing to Self-Medication and Consumption of Non-Prescribed Drugs in Portugal.

ABSTRACT: Objectives: This work sets out to find the relationship between taking non-prescribed drugs and predisposing, enabling and need factors. Specifically, our main aim is to find the relationship between taking non-prescribed drugs and the lack of health care. Methods: We used data from the last 2019 National Health Survey and estimate logistic regressions for the whole sample and stratified by sex. Results: The most striking finding is that people self-medicating with non-prescribed drugs seem to be replacing health care when this is not used because of financial constraints or distance from provider. This suggests that non-prescribed drugs are a fast, affordable, alternative to health care. Other findings show that income and the financial resources to cope with unexpect

SUBMITTER: Tavares AI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9676243 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature