Medicine use among adolescents: the 11-year follow-up of the 1993 Pelotas (Brazil) birth cohort study

Abstract

IntroductionMedicines are an important therapeutic tool and an essential health resource, accounting for a significant part of the improvement in the population's quality of life and life expectancy. However, their irrational use poses direct and indirect risks to the population, while increasing the overall health costs and raising a highly relevant public health problem 1 .Medicine use is reaching high levels in both developed and developing countries. In Brazil, although the population has problems in accessing medicines 2 , their use is high in all age brackets 3,4 . Various factors contribute to this situation, including: difficulty in access to health services, lack of adequate pharmacovigilance, unrestricted sale of medicines in pharmacies and drugstores, and current society's steadfast belief in the power of medicines 5,6,7 .Since adolescence is a phase of new sensations and experiences, it is considered a risk period for the use of substances, including medicines, and the possible harm related to such use 8 . According to the literature, certain risk behaviors like smoking or drinking in adolescence are associated with the use of some therapeutic classes of medicines like those used for headache, digestive diseases, and anxiety 9 .In 1999-2001, the Brazilian National System of Toxicological and Pharmacological Information (SINITOX) recorded 218,692 cases of human ARTIGO ARTICLE

Tracking of Medicine Use and Self-Medication From Infancy to Adolescence: 1993 Pelotas (Brazil) Birth Cohort Study

“…According to Moraes et al [6], in the city of Maringá, Brazil, 56% of the adolescents aged 14–18 years had used medicines in the previous 15 days; 53% used these medicines by self-medication, and the majority of these adolescents did not know the names of their medicines. Studies carried out in the city of Pelotas, Brazil, showed a high prevalence of medicine use among children and adolescents; 64% in children aged 1 year [7], 56% in those aged 3–4 years [8], and 31% in those aged 11 years [9]. Consistently, the literature indicates that the prevalence is higher among girls than boys [5,6,10,11].…”

Medication use in normal weight and overweight children in a nationally representative sample of Canadian children

“…Only two other studies have compared medication use between obese and normal weight children: a study from a regional paediatric healthcare centre in Israel found about 60% more prescriptions in obese children between 12 and 18 years compared to normal weight children 38. Data from a follow-up of the Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy (PIAMA) birth cohort at age 11 years in Brazil showed that obesity is associated with 20% higher intake of medications (prescription and OTC) 36. In contrast to the latter two studies, the present analysis was further able to examine which drug classes accounted for the differential between overweight and normal weight children.…”

Atividade física, tempo de tela e utilização de medicamentos em adolescentes: coorte de nascimentos de Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil, 1993

“…para os sistemas nervoso e respiratório e os anti--inflamatórios 28,38 . Com relação às análises prospectivas de nosso estudo, embora algumas associações significativas tenham sido encontradas entre atividade física, o tempo de tela e o uso de medicamentos aos 18 anos, de um modo geral, os resultados não permitem confirmar inequivocamente a existên-cia de associação entre os comportamentos.…”

“…No entanto, quando as análises são estratificadas por sexo, a maioria das associações deixa de ser estatisticamente significativas. Possivelmente, a modificação nos resultados seja decorrente do fato de que meninas são, ao mesmo tempo, menos ativas e usam mais medicamentos 4,9,19,20,28 .…”

“…Em adultos, alguns esforços nesse sentido têm sido desenvolvidos 22,23,24,25,26,27 , porém, os resultados não são consistentes. Em adolescentes, são poucas as evidências disponíveis, e os resultados sugerem não haver associação entre prática de atividade física e uso de medicamentos 28 . Contudo, tanto os estudos com adultos quanto com adolescentes foram realizados com delineamento transversal.…”