The 2017 Current Survey, conducted by the Statistical School of the University of Costa Rica (UCR), revealed that 81.7% of Ticos self-medicate, mostly due to headaches.
This is the sixth version of this study, which sought the opinion of 1,236 Costa Ricans aged 18 and over .The researchers addressed 10 issues, including self-medication.
The results also indicate that the main reasons are headaches (64.5%), followed by a cold (59.5%), stomach pain (53.2%), sore throat (51,6%) and fever (50.9%). In addition, people do so in different intensities: 15.3% of the population does so with a high intensity -mostly women, 59.1%- ; 31.4% self-medicated with an intermediate intensity, and 53.3% with low intensity.
The availability of over-the-counter medicines, their publicity and the real possibility of access to health services, as well as the growing problem of resistance to drugs, make it necessary to analyze and determine the behavior of the population in this area.
The survey also asked about adherence to antibiotics. Nearly half of those consulted consumed antibiotics at least once, in the last 12 months, and get them mainly in the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS).
This issue is worrisome for specialists, who have been warning that self-medication represents a danger for the treatment of infectious diseases, given the increase in the transmission of viruses that are producing acute and severe respiratory infections.
The indiscriminate or incorrect use of antibiotics in the population, leads to an increase in the resistance of the bacteria to the usual drugs, and if a patient does not take the full dose of these drugs to eliminate the infection, the microorganisms could become stronger and consequently, the number of effective antibiotics would be reduced.