Health risk of self-medication in Chinese urban residents

Objective To study the health risk of self-medication in Chinese urban residents.Methods The trained inquirer conducted a face to face questionnaire survey among community residents selected with stratified rendom sapmling from 6 cities of China.Results Among 2160 in terviewees,38.8% used an tibioticsat will during self-medication;27.9% of them prolonged or shortened the duration of medicine use;25.5% added or reduced the do sage,and 25.4% used different medicines at one time.The data of health risk level was positive skew distribution with the maxmium of 1,minmiun of 0,median of 0.1916,and the quartile range of 0.2507.19.4% of the values was less than 0.5.The results of multiple linear regression showed that three independent variables(self-report health,living area,attitude towards self-medication)were of statistic significance.Conclusion The residents lived in the middle west area of China and the residents with loweducation degree are the key population of intervention because of their high risk in self-medication.