POSSIBLE RISK OF HARM RESULTING FROM A LACK OF AWARENESS OF THE RULES OF CORRECT USE OF DRUGS

It is well known that every drug can be effective as a drug, but also just as a poison, depending on the amount. Taking drugs could lead many risks, even if people comply with the correct rules of use. Obviously, these risks grow if the rules are not followed. Currently, it is absolutely common that everybody sometimes takes some medicine. There are also many polypharmacy patients with serious or chronic diseases who are in possible higher risk of medical related problems. In addition, many people use drugs without advice of a pharmacist or a physician. Self-medication could represent a problem because it involves the use of medicinal products to treat self-recognized disorders or symptoms, or the intermittent or continuous use of a medication prescribed by a physician for chronic or recurring disease or symptoms. Selfmedication involves acquiring medicines without prescription, resubmitting old prescriptions to purchase medicines, sharing medicines with relatives or members of one’s social circle, or using leftover medicines stored at home. The practice of self-medication must be based on authentic medical information, otherwise irrational use of drugs can cause wastage of resources, increased resistance of pathogens, and can lead to serious health hazards such as adverse drug reaction. A high prevalence of self-medication in young people was noted, and it is known that they are influenced by the media and the Internet, which promote self-medication behavior. Many studies were focused on health literacy in adults, but there is still lack of information about student´s understanding the medical recommendations. For this reason this work was focused on understanding medical terms. This paper might help to better evaluate the importance and the risk of incomprehension of information about using drugs in young people. MATERIALI E METODI: The study population was randomly chosen from students of Camerino (University, and grammar and vocational high-schools). The questionnaire used was divided into: demographic data, use of drugs, buying drugs in on-line pharmacies, knowledge of medical terms. Twenty five technical terms were used, each with four possible answers (just one answer was the right one) and the fifth possibility was the answer “I do not know”. The questionnaires (absolutely anonymous and voluntary) were filled in during the classes. The results were processed in Microsoft Excel 2010. Chi square test was used to examine the relationship between the level of understanding medical terms and sex, age, education or occupation of parents. RISULTATI: The questionnaire was completed by 387 students (55.04% male and 44.96% female). The mean age of responders was 18.9 years. Table 1 shows the demographic data of the participants to the survey. A high level of knowledge of some well-known expressions as precautions, analgesic, spasm and erythema was found out. On the contrary, most of medical terms used in the leaflet were not known to majority of the respondents (only 10-33%). Figure 1 shows answers given by respondents concerning some medical terms. Any relation between the gender of respondents and understanding the medical terms was not observed. The level of understanding of medical terms was also not related to age of respondents. Although in some questions was observed that older students had better knowledge of medical terms, the most likely reason should be probably the higher education than the real age of students. Indeed, a significant correlation between education and better understanding medical terms was observed. Finally, medical terms awareness - not adequately known to majority of respondents - shows the significant connection to the job of parents (if at least one of parents worked in a medical profession, the level of understanding the terms was significantly higher). CONCLUSIONI: The results show that there is a low knowledge of the most used medical terms. This observation suggest that young people who use drugs are at risk for potential drug interaction, adverse drug reactions, etc. There is a need to educate the youth, and make them health literate, to ensure safe practices. References Davis Tc, Wolf Ms, Bass Pf, Middlebrooks M et al. Low literacy impairs comprehension of prescription drug warning labels. J Gen Intern Med 2006;21:847-851. Golbeck A, Paschal A, Jones A, Hsiao T. Correlating reading compre¬hension and health numeracy among adults with low literacy. Patient Educ Couns. 2011;84:132–134. WHO. Guidelines for the regulatory assessment of medicinal products for use in Selfmedication, 2000. http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/pdf/s2218e/s2218e.pdf. Loyola Filho AI, Lima-Costa MF, Uchoˆa E (2004) Bambuı´ Project: a qualitative approach to selfmedication. Cad Saude Publica 20(6):1661–1669. Nathan JP, Zerilli T, Cicero LA, Rosenberg JM. Patients' use and perception of medication information leaflets. Ann Pharmacother 2007 May;41(5):777-82.