Prevalencia de la automedicación con antibióticos y factores asociados, en adultos mayores en el area urbana del cantón Cuenca, 2013-2014

Abstract

Background: Self-medication is the use of medication without prescription. This behavior is a worldwide public health problem and it is the main cause of antibiotic resistance observed nowadays.

Objective: To determine the prevalence and associated factors of self-medication in seniors in the urban area of Cuenca.

Methodology: A prevalence study was performed. The subjects were 668 seniors, and were selected from 15 urban parishes of Cuenca using simple stratified randomization strategy. Guided surveys were provided in order to obtain the data. The data was analyzed using SPSS v15; calculating frequencies and prevalence ratio (PR) with a 95% confidence interval.

Results: The participants were distributed as follows: 45,8% male and 54,2% female. The prevalence of self-medication using antibiotics was of 11.7%. Pain was the main cause of self-medication with a proportion of 30,8%. Family members are the main source of information with a total of 43,6%. A total of 80.8% obtained antibiotics from a medical cabinet. Of the 688 seniors, 53,8% completed the treatment. The association between male and age of 80 years old and younger showed an increased risk for self-medication with a PR of 1,44 and 1,22 respectively.

Conclusions: Self-medication with antibiotics in seniors group in Cuenca, showed to be an important problem because of the high prevalence found in this study, that is why we should pay special attention to it