The medicine use and corresponding subjective health complaints among adolescents, a cross-national survey.
BACKGROUND
Medicine use among children and young people is under-researched. Studies that investigated cross-national patterns in adolescents' medicine use practice are rare. This study aims to investigate adolescents' medicine use for corresponding health complaints in Europe and USA.


METHODS
Nationally representative samples of adolescents from 19 countries and regions in Europe and USA completed an anonymous, standardised questionnaire as part of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children 2005/2006 survey. The prevalence of health complaints and medicine use were determined. The influence of the frequency of medicine use, age, gender and country of residence, on the likelihood of medicine use was assessed using multilevel multivariate logistic regression, with separate analyses for boys and girls.


RESULTS
Both health complaints and medicine use were common among adolescents. Medicine use was strongly associated with the frequency of health complaints. The prevalence of both medicine use and health complaints was higher among girls than boys. Boys and girls with weekly health complaints were both similarly likely to report elevated rates of medicine use.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings indicated that adolescents who report more frequent recurrent health complaints are also more likely to report more frequent medicine use for their health complaints. Adolescent boys with weekly health complaints have the same risk of medicine use as girls with weekly health complaints. The importance of educating school-aged children to interpret their bodily feelings and complaints and to use medicines appropriately is of high priority.
Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Riga Stradins University, Latvia. inese.gobina@rsu.lv
Inese
I
Gobina
Raili
R
Välimaa
Jorma
J
Tynjälä
Jari
J
Villberg
Anita
A
Villerusa
Ronald J
RJ
Iannotti
Emmanuelle
E
Godeau
Saoirse Nic
SN
Gabhainn
Anette
A
Andersen
Bjørn E
BE
Holstein
Robert
R
Griebler
Ina
I
Borup
Anna
A
Kokkevi
Anastasios
A
Fotiou
Alberto
A
Boraccino
Lorenza
L
Dallago
Yolande
Y
Wagener
Kate
K
Levin
Emmanuel
E
Kuntsche
D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D015995:Prevalence; D012008:Recurrence; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations