Influence of Advertising on self-Medication among the Population of Vitória da Conquista

• Autor(a) principal: Azevedo, Monarly Campos
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Santos, Rafael Pires dos, Menezes, Ana Carolina Pessoa Moreira
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: ID on line. Revista de psicologia
• Texto Completo: https://idonline.emnuvens.com.br/id/article/view/3634
• topic: Self-medication; Advertsing; Consumption; Public health; Automedicação; Propaganda; Consumo; Saúde pública

Self-medication is practiced by a large part of the population as a behaviour, defined as the use of drugs without a medical prescription, in which the individual determines the drug and dosage that will be used by himself. Despite being a routine action, it can present risks and health problems, such as masking diseases symptoms, side effects and intoxications. This practice can be influenced by pharmaceutical industry marketing in order to increase sales. In this context, the objective of this research was to evaluate the profile of the practice of self-medication by inhabitants of a city in the southwest of Bahia and how marketing influences their consumption behavior. A cross-sectional research with a quantitative approach was carried out in Vitória da Conquista - BA. The collection was carried out in person with 100 participants during the month of October 2022 through the application of a questionnaire containing 15 questions. The results obtained showed that 90% are adept at self-medication, 75.5% of these due to headache. Although 59.8% declared that previous prescriptions are the main reason for self-medicating, 42% have already bought medication because they saw it in advertisements and 54% believe marketing influences their drug consumption. Based on this, it was noticed that the prevalence of self-medication in the study sample is high, which indicates the need for different rules on pharmaceutical marketing, aimed at promoting the rational use of medicines