Self-medication in adolescence: Practice among students of a high school

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: to analyze the practice of self-medication among students of a high school. METHOD: transversal study, primary data, quantitative approach, carried out in a high school of Rio Branco-Acre, Brazil. Data collection occurred in March 2018, in the school library using a form with open and closed questions. The data were analyzed thoroughly and the interconnections of all questions of the form for the achievement of the proposed objectives. RESULTS: 78% of survey participants are users of the public health system, 64% of them used some kind of medicine recently without medical prescription and only 36% consulted the doctor for the past 12 months. The drugs most used among them were painkillers (27%), followed by antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs (21%). Mothers constitute itself as the leading familiar to self-medicate, and somehow the main influencer for self-medication practice among teenagers. CONCLUSION: there was among teenagers, a significant consumption of medicines without medical prescription, especially by those who are users of the public health system. It becomes obvious the importance of the implementation of measures of health education with this population, in order to avoid possible damage to the health of the same through the practice of self- medication.