A Study of Factors Associated with Purchasing Over-the-counter Drugs among Community Elderly

• Main Authors: His-Feng Chou, 周杏芬
• Other Authors: Ping-Ling Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/62791813756020175831

碩士 === 臺北醫學大學 === 護理學系 === 91 === The purpose of this study was to determine the associate factors of purchasing over-the-counter (OTC) drugs among the community elderly in Taipei. Cross-sectional study was conducted via quota sampling were employed. A total of 238 community elderly who were above 60 interview by trained communitynurses. Major findings were summarized as follows. 1. 34.5% of the community elderly reported once bought OTC drugs in the past 3 months. The most frequently purchased products were mucolytics, nutritional supplements, and anti-pyretics & analgesics. The major reasons for people not using OTC were “no tendency/habit to take OTC drugs”, “feeling healthy and without a need”, and “not convinced of the efficacy”. The locations where people obtained OTC drugs were mainly drug stores. Most people irregularly purchased OTC drugs. Mostly NT$100 ~ NT$500 were spent each time. 2. considering season factor, lower score of perceived health status, price advantage, brands, TV advertisement, opinions from pharmacists, friends, and relatives also were associated with higher tendency to buy OTC drugs. 3. Urban community elderly higher scores of satisficatic of health services, and expensiveness OTC drugs, were associated with more money on purchasing OTC. 4. For the community elderly who ever felt unwell in the past 3 months, the association between numbers of symptoms reported and the kinds of OTC drugs they purchased were found statistically significant. In a linear regression model, it was further noted that the more the symptoms a subject reported, the more kinds of OTCs he/she bought. Recommendations based on the study findings were as follows. 1. Community health nurse should exercise her/his professional role and identify the existing or potential problems of self-medication in a timely manner, and further provide continuing case management, including nursing assessment, nursing diagnosis, nursing plan and implementation for the community elderly. 2. Community health nurse may adopt a series of primary, secondary, tertiary preventative strategy in the self-medication nursing plan for the community elderly and 1) provide education to increase and improve their knowledge of accessing and taking OTC medicines and further change their viewpoints toward OTC drugs; 2) detect factors influencing their patterns of buying and using OTC medicines and framing the intervention plan for the community; 3) establish a self-medication reporting system for the community elderly, in order to understand the causes of adverse drug reactions and to provide necessary health education for discharged patients.