Nielsen Merete W, Hansen Ebba Holme, Rasmussen Niels Kristian
Department of Social Pharmacy, The Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Eur J Clin Pharmacol. 2003 Nov;59(8-9):677-84. doi: 10.1007/s00228-003-0678-z. Epub 2003 Oct 2.
To analyse the association among different types of medicine use and different measures of socio-economic position (SEP) in one and the same general population.
Data from The Danish Health and Morbidity Survey 2000 were analysed. The survey was conducted by face-to-face interviews with a representative sample of the adult Danish population (n=16,690). The associations between prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medicine use and education, occupation and income were assessed by logistic regression analyses. All analyses were adjusted for age, gender and two measures of health status.
This cross-sectional analysis of medicine use in a large representative sample of the Danish population found greater use of prescription medicines among disability pensioners and "others" than in salaried employees. Disability pensioners and self-employed individuals used less OTC medicine than salaried employees. Individuals with low income used more prescription medicines but not more OTC medicines, than those with high income. No major differences were found in prescription medicine use with respect to education, but men within the two middle educational groups tended to use prescription medicine less frequently than both lower and higher educated men. A similar trend was not found for women. OTC medicine use was not associated with education for either gender.
The prevalence of prescription medicine use increases with declining SEP, after adjusting for health status. Such an association does not exist for OTC medicine use. The results show that the least affluent have access to prescription medicine. The difference between prescription and OTC medicine use may be explained by a compensation mechanism.
分析同一普通人群中不同类型药物使用与不同社会经济地位（SEP）指标之间的关联。
对2000年丹麦健康与发病率调查的数据进行分析。该调查通过对丹麦成年人口的代表性样本（n = 16,690）进行面对面访谈开展。通过逻辑回归分析评估处方药和非处方药使用与教育、职业和收入之间的关联。所有分析均对年龄、性别和两种健康状况指标进行了调整。
对丹麦人口的大量代表性样本进行的药物使用横断面分析发现，残疾养老金领取者和“其他人群”比受薪雇员更多地使用处方药。残疾养老金领取者和个体经营者比受薪雇员使用的非处方药更少。低收入者比高收入者使用更多的处方药，但非处方药使用量并不更多。在处方药使用方面，未发现教育程度有重大差异，但两个中等教育组中的男性使用处方药的频率往往低于受教育程度较低和较高的男性。女性未发现类似趋势。无论男女，非处方药使用与教育程度均无关联。
在调整健康状况后，处方药使用的患病率随社会经济地位下降而增加。非处方药使用不存在这种关联。结果表明，最贫困人群也能获得处方药。处方药和非处方药使用的差异可能由一种补偿机制来解释。
