Effects of medical information in media on self-diagnosis and self-mediation behaviors among adult residents in Liaoning province

Objective To analyze the effects of health and medicine information from media on self-diagnosis and self-medication behaviors in adult residents of Liaoning province.Methods By using cross-sectional design,2 981 adults in Liaoning province were selected with multistage cluster random sampling and surveyed with a questionnaire face-to-face.Results Of all the respondents,43.8%paid attention to and 11.7%trusted the health information from the media(newspaper,journal,television,and broadcasting);11.6%reported the involvement in the sales promotion for medical products sponsored by enterprises.There were 36.8%and 43.2%of the respondents reporting the experiences of self-diagnosis and self-medication based on the medical information from the media.The results of univariate analysis demonstrated that the respondents living in urban area,aged 40-59 years,having higher income,and with the education of senior high school reported significantly higher rates of self-diagnosis and self-medication compared to other respondents;the respondents concerning and trusting the medication information form the media and taking part in sales promotion of medical products tended to conduct more self-diagnosis and self-medication than those not interesting with the information and the promotion.The results of multivariate analysis showed that the urban respondents were more likely to have self-diagnosis,self-medication,and the self-diagnosis and medication than the rural respondents,with the odds ratio of 2.87,1.50,and 2.42,respectively;the behaviors of self-diagnosis and self-medication were inversely correlated with health status and positively with the concern and trust with medication information from the media and the involvement in the sales promotion of medical products among the respondents.Conclusion The medication information from media have significant influence on self-diagnosis and self-medication of the residents in Liaoning province and governmental management on the release of the information needs to be improved to decrease inappropriate medication among the residents.