Prevalence and associated factors of self medication with antibiotics in Czech Republic

Summary

Self medication with antibiotics (ATB) in Czech Republic (CR) is not approved by law. During the past era a very strong ATB policy and strict control of ATB use in the CR. The objectives of this study were to determine prevalence and to identified factors related of actual self medication with antibiotics and ‘at risk’ self medication with antibiotics.

Method:
crosss sectional design, two stage sampling, selecting a representative region, a middle size city (urban) and rural area sampling. Self administered postal questionnaire were randomly sent to to adults age ≥ 18, 1 000 respondents in urban and 1000 in rural area. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analysis was completed using SPSS 11.5 version.

Results:
The prevalence of ATB use with prescription was 28.0 % and actual ATB self medication was 0.5 %. The prevalence at risk of self medication with ATBs: storage ATB at home was 7.5 % and intended ATB use for themselves was 16.9 %. Amoxicillin was the most frequent of antibiotic use whereas throat symptom/complain was the most frequent reasons for use ATBs. Storage ATBs at home sources were from medical prescription, relative and from pharmacy without any prescription. The most frequent of storage ATBs at home was co-trimoxazol. The most comonly indication to use ATB without consultation with a physician was sore throath. The predictor of the ATB use with prescription were male, people which had children at home, suffered from chronic diseases, and storage ATB at home. Respondents less 35 years old, who used ATB with prescription, intended use ATB, were determinants of storage ATB at home. The people with ATB at home was predicted to be actual self medication. The predictors of intended use ATB by adults were people age less than 65 years and storage ATB home.

In conclusion, the prevalence of actual self medication with AB was low but „at risk“ self medication was higher in the ČR. The people with age less than 35 years were strong predictor for storage ATB at home and intended use ATB without consulting a physician. The people which storage ATB at home were predicted to be actual self medication.

Key words:
self medication – antibiotic – Czech Republic