Abstract:
The work aims to know the factors that contribute to the self-medication of the elderly people, as well as to characterize the main risks of self-medication in the elder. This is an exploratory descriptive research with a quantitative approach. The study sample consisted of 144 elderly people from the municipality of Morada Nova in Ceará. Data were expressed as mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum values, as well as simple frequency and percentage calculated using the 20.0 version of SPSS statistical software (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). It was found that 88.2% of the elderly people have had medication for more than a year, 68% have had more than three medications daily, 42.2% of the interviewees had their last appointment less than a month before, 77.8% stated that they did not have help with the use of medicines. In this sense, it was evident that the practice of self-medication is frequent in the elderly people, which reflects the need to work with health promotion groups in order to reduce possible damage caused by the inappropriate use of medicines.
Keywords: Elderly. Self-medication. Nursing.
Authors:
Thaisa Christina Reinaldo Monteiro;
Amélia Carolina Lopes Fernandes;
Dayane Pessoa de Araújo;
José Rodolfo Lopes de Paiva Cavalcanti;
Francisca Patrícia Barreto de Carvalho;
Ana Cristina Arrais;
Eudes Euler de Souza Lucena;
Lucidio Clebeson de Oliveira.