A prática da automedicação na terceira idade: um estudo com idosos atendidos na Estratégia Saúde da Família.

Abstract

Self-medication is a common form of self-health care, consisting of the consumption of a product with the objective of treating and relieving symptoms or diseases, or even promoting health, regardless of medical prescription. The inadequate practice of self-medication brings undesirable consequences and effects, iatrogenic illnesses and masking of evolutionary diseases, representing, therefore, an important public health problem that must be recognized and prevented. In this context, with the increase in the elderly population in Brazil, the elderly become major consumers of medicines, becoming the most medicalized group in society. Thus, the study aimed to learn about the practice of self-medication in the elderly from reports of elderly people attended in the Family Health Strategy. This is an exploratory and descriptive study, with a quantitative approach, developed at the Health Center of the municipality of São João do Rio de Peixe (PB). The population was composed of all the elderly registered at the referred center, making a total universe of 420 users. The sample, in turn, consisted of 40 elderly people chosen through a non-probabilistic sampling by snowball. The data collected in November 2010 through a semi-structured interview script were analyzed using the technique of descriptive statistics. It is worth mentioning that the study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the State University of Paraíba under opinion number 0532.0.133.000-10, meeting the assumptions contained in Resolution 196/96 of the Ministry of Health in which it provides for the conduct of research with human beings. Regarding the results, in relation to the socio-demographic profile of the participants, it was found that 72.5% of them are female and married, 67.5% are illiterate, 75% are retired, 92.5% are practicing Catholic doctrine and 57.5% have a family income of one to two national minimum wages in force. In addition, it was observed that self-medication is a practice intensively referred to by 90% of the elderly, in which they use it, especially painkillers and antipyretics. It was also noticed that 30.4% of the elderly self-medicate for knowing the indications and effects of drugs; 27% indicated the difficulty of accessing the health service as a determining factor of this practice and, 23.8% considered medical assistance unnecessary when the appearance of simple symptoms. In this sense, it is necessary to make a public investment in the field of preventive health, especially with regard to community education and the technical training of health professionals to deal with the problem of self-medication in a group vulnerable to health problems.