Indicação e obtenção de informações sobre medicamentos na população brasileira: um recorte da PNAUM

Abstract

Medicine use is a process affected by countless variables, which can result in their correct use or not. In Brazil, medication indication is one of the concerning factors, as it goes beyond what we would consider ideal, prescribed by health professionals qualified to prescribe them. Likewise, people often seek information about medicines from various sources, whether reliable or not. This study aimed to analyze the behavior of Brazilians regarding the need to receive medication indications and obtain information about medications. This study is a descriptive study that used data from the Pesquisa Nacional sobre Acesso, Utilização e Promoção do Uso Racional de Medicamentos (PNAUM - National Survey on Access, Use and Promotion of Rational Use of Medicines), a survey carried out in 2014 that, through sampling by conglomerates, obtained the participation of 41433 subjects. From that study, data from two questions were used: "Who do you trust to recommend medications?" and "When you have any questions about the use of medicines, where or from whom do you usually seek information?". For the first question, several alternatives were made available, answered individually for each respondent, with the number of respondents varying between responses, while the second question had multiple choices of answers. The most reliable sources of medication indications were the doctor (94.5%) and the dentist (60.1%), while the most reliable sources of information on medicines were the doctor (75.6%) and the pharmacist (20.1%). The study made it possible to evaluate the trust profile for different people and professions regarding knowledge about medicines. In both questions, doctors stood out in relation to other sources, demonstrating the trust that the population has in this professional, both as a prescriber of medicines and as a source of information about medications.