Pattern and Factors Associated with Medicine Usage in Middle-aged Adults: a Population Based Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

AIM: The present study analyzes the adherence phenomenon and possible correlations between active individuals and their educational status on the prevalence of medicine use in the population of a young and developing country such as Kosova. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is an observational, cross-sectional, research study including a total number of 162 subjects aged 40-65 years residents of Kosova. Gender distribution was: 32.7% males and 67.3% females. Assessments of medication adherence and compliance, the level of physical activity (PA), and education were made by reliable and validated questionnaires. RESULTS: Analyzing medication compliance, of 162 interviewed subjects, 29.6% (32.1% males and 28.4% females) and 27.2% (22.6% males and 29.3% females) responded that they sometimes forget to take their medicines, or that they stop taking them for reasons other than forgetting. Meanwhile, 40.1% declared that they usually stopped the medicine only because they felt better, 38.9% claimed to have stopped the medicine because they believed they felt worse, whereas more than half of our study responders declared having problem with buying the medicine. Regarding PA, significantly better results (p<0.05) in medicine use were shown by subjects with higher PA level in our population. Additionally, higher levels of education correlated with lower amount of medication consumption. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest for certain lack of adherence, difficulties and information related to medicine use. Consequently this raises the need for public education on the medication adherence and life style factors such as PA for the success of the treatment.