Sources of information on medicines taken by high school students of a public school

• Autor(a) principal: Ramos, Thales Brandi
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Castilho, Selma Rodrigues de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Saúde e Pesquisa (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.unicesumar.edu.br/index.php/saudpesq/article/view/8786
• topic: Internet; Information technology; Drug utilization; YouTube; Internet; Tecnologias da informação; Uso de medicamentos; YouTube; Medicamentos; Informação; Saúde

Current paper identifies sources of information on medicines among high school students and discusses the role of the Internet in this process. Cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical survey was conducted with 232 students from a public school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Most students (75.86%) said they had access to information about medicines at school, mainly by teachers (32.48%). Health professionals were identified as the biggest source (42.67%), whereas on the Internet, the most cited tool was YouTube (32.03%). Among students who use the Internet as a source of information, most (76.36%) had used medication in the previous 15 days, did not receive any instructions (60.00%) and regularly self-medicated (44.55%). Results highlight the role of the Internet as a source of information, despite the lack of regulatory mechanisms on what is disseminated, which may compromise the rational use of medicines.