Knowledge about drug prescription among urban menopausal women in Muang District, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand

Type Journal Article - Journal of Health Research
Title Knowledge about drug prescription among urban menopausal women in Muang District, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand
Author(s)
Volume 29
Issue 1
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2015
Page numbers 1-6
URL https://www.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/jhealthres/article/view/79924
Abstract
In 1990, there were 467 million menopausal women in the world. Each year 25 million of them would
enter menopause. By the year 2030 the amount would increase to 1.2 billion, with 47 million new
entrants each year. In Thailand, the number of menopausal women had increased to the equivalent of
26 percent of whole country population in 2009. These would appear to have the following symptoms,
whole body deterioration and sexual fluctuation occurrence. As the result of hormone imbalance, these
women may have risks from potentially making purchases on unnecessary medications without seeing
physician. The objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of menopausal population about
drug prescription use. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on drug misuse among menopausal
population in Muang district, UbonRatchathani, Thailand. Data were collected by questionnaires
interview in various areas by using simple random sampling. By using the inclusion criteria and the
menopausal screening form, 411 suitable women as the remaining subjects. We have evaluated their
level of knowledge on how well they understand about medication use both medications that was
already taken and would be taken in the future. The number of women who answered that they have
both taken some medications and were likely to take other type in the future was 292. The result
showed that 50% of them had a lack of knowledge and poor understanding on how to take medication
correctly and cautiously. They were not aware that some specific medications should not be taken at
the same time, or when to avoid food and beverage while taking certain type of medication. The study
also indicated that 21% of them had misused medication of at least 1 type. Knowledge about drug
prescription was significantly associated with drug misuse (p< 0.05). Socio-demographis, health status
(BMI), health seeking (personal disease), were significantly associated with the level of knowledge
about drug prescription use (p< 0.05). Results suggested that health behaviors and health seeking
should be studied further, in hopes of helping menopausal women better understand the risks of
medication abuse.

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