Intervención farmacéutica en la automedicación de pacientes que acuden a las farmacias de la Cooperativa 30 de Junio en la ciudad de Santo Domingo de los Colorados, Ecuador

Abstract

The aim of this research was to apply pharmaceutical interventions in self-medication of patients who visit the pharmacies of the Cooperativa 30 de junio in Santo Domingo de los Colorados City during March-June 2022. The research had a non-experimental, descriptive, prospective and cross-sectional approach; the experimental group consisted of people who went to the study pharmacies for medicines without medical prescription. Data were collected through the application of surveys on a sample of 980 people of both sexes aged 25 to 65 years and older, of which only 672 people were part of the study. Excel spreadsheets were used to compile the data obtained and the statistical software SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was used for subsequent analysis of the results. The results showed that the population aged 25-40 years were the people who self-medicated the most with a percentage of 64.88%, and the most prevalent gender was male with 5l.49%. The main reason for resorting to self-medication was that they know the symptoms they have and they know what they should take, the most used group of medicines without prescription were analgesics with 46.28%. The 38.69% of respondents sought advice from a family member or medical friend regarding over-the-counter or nonprescription drugs. Subsequently, training sessions were held in pharmacies providing information on self-medication, its consequences and other topics of interest. It was concluded that, in general, the population who went to the pharmacies use self-medication. It is recommended to carry out studies on self-medication with respect to the different groups of most commonly dispensed drugs, together with pharmacovigilance to establish the incidence of adverse drug reactions.