Klemenc-Ketis Zalika, Kersnik Janko
University of Maribor, Medical School, Department of Family Medicine, Maribor, Slovenia.
Coll Antropol. 2011 Dec;35(4):1237-42.
Self-medication is defined as the use of medicines without medical supervision to treat one's own ailment. It is apart of a help-seeking behaviour that depends on socio-cultural and personal factors, which is why people react to the illness differently and also take different measures to cope with it. The aim of this study was to explore the Slovenian citizens' attitudes towards self-medication. The study included a random sample of 1,000 Slovenian inhabitants, stratified to all Slovenian regions. This was a postal survey. Participants were mailed a self-administered questionnaire about attitudes towards self-treatment. In the statistical analysis we used independent t-test and chi2-test. We received 410 responses (41.0% response rate). In the past year, 389 (94.9%) respondents practiced self-medication. Most respondents (209, 52.1%) supported and used it in everyday life. The majority of the respondents (274, 77.2%) practiced self-medication when symptoms emerged. When symptoms lasted for one week or less, 210 (56.5%) of the respondents practising self-medication visited their doctor. The respondents agreed mostly with the statement that their doctor had a positive relationship towards self-medication. Younger people were more confident about the absolute safety of self-medication whereas older people were more certain that they could practice it no matter what disease they might have. As self-medication is very common among Slovenian population and various demographic factors affect the opinions about it and the reasons for its use and also a doctor-patients communication about it, it is important that doctors, especially those in primary health care settings always ask about its use. This is of a particular importance when dealing with older and retired patients, which are more likely to suffer from more chronic diseases and use alternative medicine, which is a common part of self-medication. Also, it is important to educate young people about possible unsafe practice of self-medication.
自我药疗的定义是在没有医疗监督的情况下使用药物来治疗自己的疾病。它是寻求帮助行为的一部分，这取决于社会文化和个人因素，这就是为什么人们对疾病的反应不同，并且采取不同的措施来应对它。本研究的目的是探讨斯洛文尼亚公民对自我药疗的态度。该研究包括从斯洛文尼亚所有地区分层随机抽取的1000名斯洛文尼亚居民样本。这是一项邮寄调查。参与者收到一份关于自我治疗态度的自填式问卷。在统计分析中，我们使用了独立t检验和卡方检验。我们收到了410份回复（回复率为41.0%）。在过去一年中，389名（94.9%）受访者进行了自我药疗。大多数受访者（209名，52.1%）在日常生活中支持并使用自我药疗。大多数受访者（274名，77.2%）在出现症状时进行自我药疗。当症状持续一周或更短时间时，进行自我药疗的受访者中有210名（56.5%）去看了医生。受访者大多同意他们的医生对自我药疗持积极态度这一说法。年轻人对自我药疗的绝对安全性更有信心，而老年人更确定无论患何种疾病都可以进行自我药疗。由于自我药疗在斯洛文尼亚人口中非常普遍，各种人口统计学因素会影响对它的看法、使用原因以及医患之间关于它的沟通，因此医生，尤其是基层医疗环境中的医生，始终询问其使用情况非常重要。在处理更易患多种慢性病且使用替代药物（这是自我药疗的常见组成部分）的老年和退休患者时，这一点尤为重要。此外，对年轻人进行关于自我药疗可能存在不安全做法的教育也很重要。
