Self‐Medication Risk During SARS‐COV‐2 Confinement Pandemic

Orellana Manzano, Andrea; Orellana Manzano, Silvia; Dorado Sanchez, Luis; Vizcaino, Maria; Gomez‐Franco, Fausto; Chuquimarca‐Tandazo, Lenin

According to WHO's definition, self‐medication is the use of drugs to treat self‐diagnosed disorders or symptoms. There is a high risk of self‐medication on the general population, mainly in South America. This phenomenon has been increasing with the SARS‐CoV‐2 outbreak, generating concerns, and anxieties in people, especially during the period of confinement. The present study used an online survey to determine the standard self‐medication practices, risk, and medication‐severity‐index of the Ecuadorian confinement population. This study is a quantitative descriptive analysis survey designed by pharmacists and medical professionals for the self‐medication during the confinement. A total of 400 Ecuadorian adults were recruited, and 380 adults accepted the digital informed consent, regardless of whether or not they had had symptoms of COVID19 during the quarantine. The survey platform used was Google Forms, and the digital social networks (WhatsApp, Facebook) were its broadcast medium. The inclusion criteria were adults who respect the confinement conditions. We excluded health professionals or who were already taking long‐term medication. The data were analyzed by R, and the Hazard‐Risk‐Assessment‐Score (HRAS) used the analysis of clinically relevant questions. There is a high risk of drug‐related problems, despite the high level of education of the surveyed population (63.1% third level and 26.72% 4th level). The 55% of the surveyed Ecuadorian population had an extreme risk of self‐medication (HRAS25 points), 35% prefer a drug therapy recommendation of TV, Social networks, and influencer, instead of Health professional (HRAS 20 points, moderate risk), and 39% ends up their medication before recommendations of a health professional (doctor or pharmaceutical), meaning in a moderate risk of self‐medication (HRAS 12 points). There is a high risk of the Ecuadorian population to self‐medication regardless of the level of education acquired. Even though the majority of the people answered requesting a prescription for the acquisition and consumption of drugs, they presented drug‐related problems.