School of Public Health, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
School of Public Health, Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Front Public Health. 2022 Oct 19;10:954305. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.954305. eCollection 2022.
This paper aims to evaluate the prevalence of self-medication and its associated factors among the Chinese elderly. Also, according to whether the elderly communicate with doctors (no matter before or after self-medication), we aimed to categorize self-medication and explore the associated factors.
It was a cross-sectional study. Data were derived from the 2018 wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). According to whether communicate with doctors or not, self-medication was reclassified as "self-medicate and NOT communicating with a doctor," and "self-medicate and communicate with a doctor." A binary logistic regression was used to identify which elderly were more likely to self-medicate, and a multinomial logistic regression was applied to explore the associated influencing factors of self-medication classifications.
A total of 17,445 individuals aged ≥45 years were enrolled. The prevalence of self-medication was 58.60%. Self-medication was strongly associated with sex, education level, pension, self-reported general health status, chronic illness, satisfaction with local medical services, and three province-level socioeconomic welfare variables. About 19.64% of self-medication populations had communicated with a doctor. Higher education level and younger age were significantly associated with a higher probability of "self-medication and communication with a doctor."
The prevalence of self-medication among the Chinese elderly is increasing over the year. Health education on appropriate medication use targeting elder adults with low education levels is highly recommended. The typology of self-medication and its factors are new research entry points and could be meaningful for future studies.
本文旨在评估中国老年人自我用药的流行情况及其相关因素。同时，根据老年人是否与医生沟通（无论在自我用药之前还是之后），我们旨在对自我用药进行分类，并探讨相关因素。
这是一项横断面研究。数据来自 2018 年中国健康与退休纵向研究（CHARLS）的调查数据。根据是否与医生沟通，将自我用药重新分类为“自我用药且不与医生沟通”和“自我用药且与医生沟通”。采用二元逻辑回归识别哪些老年人更有可能自我用药，采用多项逻辑回归探讨自我用药分类的相关影响因素。
共纳入 17445 名年龄≥45 岁的个体。自我用药的流行率为 58.60%。自我用药与性别、受教育程度、养老金、自我报告的一般健康状况、慢性病、对当地医疗服务的满意度以及三个省级社会经济福利变量密切相关。约 19.64%的自我用药人群与医生进行了沟通。较高的教育水平和较年轻的年龄与“自我用药且与医生沟通”的可能性更高显著相关。
中国老年人自我用药的流行率呈逐年上升趋势。针对受教育程度较低的老年人群体，开展关于合理用药的健康教育非常重要。自我用药的分类及其相关因素是新的研究切入点，对未来的研究可能具有重要意义。
