Introduction: The practice of self-medication is widespread among the population. It is a kind of a socio-cultural norm that is habitual for many Russian people. Self-treatment, however, can be dangerous and lead to complications and poor health, thus being a serious challenge for healthcare. Misuse of antibiotics poses a particular danger. Self-medication has many reasons related to personal beliefs and external circumstances. The scientific community is discussing the topic of responsible self-treatment that implies reasonable health care and does not exclude seeking medical advice. The necessity of forming a responsible attitude of Russians to their health draws special attention to the problem of self-medication.
Objective: To analyze changes in the prevalence of self-medication among the Russian population and to establish the reasons for its demand in the contemporary context.
Methods: The empirical basis of the study was the personal in-home interview survey of the population aged 18 years and older.
The field stage was carried out on April 18–27, 2022 in 30 regions of the Russian Federation and captured 1,500 respondents.
Result: We have found that the health status and everyday well-being of Russians leaves much to be desired and necessitates different types of treatment. Self-medication remains a common practice. Every second respondent prefers self-care choosing medicines and folk remedies. Yet, we noticed a gradual decrease in the demand for this kind of treatment in favor of seeking professional medical advice. We revealed a significant dependence of the population, especially young people, on taking self-prescribed medications. We established also that many citizens cannot either afford or get access to necessary medical services or drugs in the area of residence, and are therefore compelled to self-treatment. The worse the respondents assess the healthcare system, the less often they consult a doctor and the more often they opt to self-medicate.
Conclusions: The problems described indicate the importance of raising awareness of self-treatment and potential dangers of drug self-administration among Russian people. It is essential to improve the general level of the culture of health and responsibility of
citizens for their health, and to create conditions for getting affordable professional medical care.
Significant efforts aimed at improving state inspection and enforcement activities are underway in Russia. The final beneficiaries of such public functions are usually citizens, as inspection and enforcement affect public health, the safety of property as well as other public values such as environment or cultural heritage. However, to date there have been no methodic approaches to evaluating performance of inspection and enforcement activities from a citizen perspective. The article presents the results of a sociological survey conducted based on the authors’ methodology, which aims at collecting citizen perceptions on effectiveness of inspection and enforcement activities and the reform in this area. The survey sample accounted for 1,010 adult respondents in 28 Russian regions. The study assumes that every citizen is a potential client of inspection and enforcement bodies, whether they have had any interaction with such bodies or not. Therefore, the survey aims at collecting public perceptions of public values safety (such as life, health, property and assets, and other interests) from various risks. The study also demonstrates how personal experience in protecting public values influences the perceptions about safety. The survey shows that only 30 percent of respondents evaluate their safety from risks (threats) as very good or rather good; the safety level among respondents who have experience in taking measures to protect such values is only 18.4 percent. Overall, the sociological survey suggests the possibility and the need to include the indicators reflecting the perspective of citizens as the final beneficiaries of inspections and enforcement activities in the list of indicators for inspection reform evaluation.
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