Estudio del consumo de medicamentos sin prescripción en adultos mayores que acuden a la cadena de farmacias pharmacity santa clara de la ciudad de riobamba

Abstract

The self-medication of older adults is considered a public health problem, because they

consume medicines without taking into account the possible drug-related problems (DRP)

and drug interactions that can increase the risks to their health, consequently, the objective

of this research was to conduct a study of the consumption of medicines without

prescription in older adults who attend the PHARMACITY SANTA CLARA chain of

pharmacies in the city of Riobamba, during the period September 2023-February 2024.

The methodology implemented had a quantitative approach, non-experimental design,

cross-sectional-descriptive type; the study population was 241 older adults, the

information was obtained through an interview using as an instrument a previously

validated questionnaire, applied to older adults who met the inclusion criteria. The results

showed that 57.3% of the older adults self-medicated, with the male sex being the most

relevant (52.2%), the most important factor for self-medication was the perception of nonserious symptoms (26.1%) and the most used medicines were analgesics (62.79%),

mainly Paracetamol (20.27%), in addition 94 possible problems related to their use were

identified. In this context, it can be concluded that self-medication among the older adults

who visited the pharmacy chain was high, and they also presented a large number of

problems related to medicines. Therefore, it is recommended to train pharmacy assistants

and older adults in order to improve their knowledge about self-medication and possible

health problems that may affect them.