Hansen Dana Lee, Hansen Ebba Holme, Holstein Bjørn E
Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Health (London). 2009 Jul;13(4):467-85. doi: 10.1177/1363459309103918.
Medicine use among youths is widespread and on the increase. This is especially true for young females, whose utilization of a variety of medications grows considerably during the teenage years. This user perspective study aims to obtain a greater understanding of what young women perceive as the norms for medicine use at home and among peers, and how these perceptions are reflected in their own use of medicine. In-depth interviews were conducted with 20 young Danish women between the ages of 16 and 20. During the interviews, participants described their perceptions regarding usual medicine taking practices and ideas about appropriate medicine use within their family and peer group. Young women possessed a keen awareness of medicine-related norms, although medicine use was a topic only rarely discussed with others. At the interface of these themes pertaining to family and peer norms, a unifying concept involving growing autonomy in medicine use emerged. This concept consisted of three parts: the great influence of family norms when autonomy was limited, growing autonomy under changing influences and assertion of autonomy and positioning of own behaviour relative to the norm. This study's findings indicate that despite increases in autonomy in medicine use, normative perceptions continued to serve as important reference points for informants' own medicine taking behaviour. Practitioners involved in the health care and promotion of youth may benefit from an increased awareness of the influential role that perceived norms in peer and family contexts can play in young women's use of medicine.
青少年用药现象普遍且呈上升趋势。年轻女性尤其如此，她们在青少年时期对各类药物的使用大幅增加。这项用户视角研究旨在更深入了解年轻女性如何看待家庭和同龄人中的用药规范，以及这些观念如何反映在她们自己的用药行为中。对20名年龄在16至20岁之间的丹麦年轻女性进行了深入访谈。访谈中，参与者描述了她们对家庭和同龄人群体中日常用药习惯及合理用药观念的看法。尽管用药是一个很少与他人讨论的话题，但年轻女性对与药物相关的规范有着敏锐的认识。在这些与家庭和同龄人规范相关的主题交汇处，出现了一个涉及用药自主权不断增强的统一概念。这个概念包括三个部分：自主权受限情况下家庭规范的巨大影响、在不断变化的影响下自主权的增长以及自主权的主张和自身行为相对于规范的定位。该研究结果表明，尽管用药自主权有所增加，但规范观念仍然是受访者自身用药行为的重要参考依据。参与青少年医疗保健和健康促进工作的从业者可能会受益于对同龄人及家庭环境中规范观念在年轻女性用药方面所起影响作用的更多认识。
