Marija Obeleniūtė, Aida Adomaitienė, Justina Daveckaitė, Eglė Pavydė, Audrius Sveikata
Abstract
To date, no previous studies were carried out in order to assess Lithuanian public awareness of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). This study aimed to assess public knowledge, behaviour and attitude of NSAIDs usage. A prospective crosssectional study was processed, using validated anonymous questionnaire, consisting of 5 parts, 22 questions. Descriptive and comparative statistical data analysis was processed using SPSS Statistics 17.0. The results were considered statistically significant when p<0.05. Even though the results of the study showed that NSAIDs are very commonly used medicinal products, public knowledge of these medicines is not sufficient. More than half of the respondents knowledge of NSAIDs was average or poor (55.7%). The most commonly used NSAIDs were ibuprofen, diclofenac and nimesulide. Self-medication with NSAIDs is a widespread phenomenon, that may lead to irrational use of NSAIDs and may be a possible threat to patient safety. Physicians and pharmacists should pay more attention to patients‘ consultations regarding rational use of NSAIDs, their safety and possible adverse reactions while prescribing or dispensing these medicines.
Keyword(s): non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; irrational use of medicines; self-medication; public knowledge.
DOI: 10.5200/sm-hs.2016.021
Full Text: PDF