Determination of Rational Drug Use Behaviors of Adult Individuals - A Cross-Sectional Study from Turkey

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine rational drug usage behaviour of adults. Material/Methods: The study was descriptive and cross-sectional. The study was conducted between January-March 2014 in Mustafa Kemal Paşa Cevizli Family Health Center in the province of Bursa, Turkey. The sample of study was composed 129 individuals who 18 years and over, had not the communication problem with place, and time orientation and accepted a voluntary basis in the study. In the collection of study data, individual identification questionnaire and questionnaire for rational drug use which by researchers in the direction of literature was used. Results: It was found that 30.2% (n: 39) of the individuals enrolled in the study were in the 18-30 age range, 57.4% (n: 74) were male, 42.6% (n: 55) were graduated from primary school, 34.9% (n: 45) were housewife, and 32.6% (n: 42) have chronic disease. 52.7% (n: 68) of the individuals, found that they used irregular their drugs, 70.6% (n: 48) did not comply the hours of taking drug, 23.3% (n: 30) used drug before consulting a doctor, 69% (n: 89) read the prospectus of drugs, 73,5% (n: 95) was prescribed the most analgesic drugs, and 65.9% (n: 85) didn’t stop before the end of the antibiotic group drugs. It was found that there did have a significant difference between the presence of chronic disease of the individuals who participated in the study and their habits of regular drug using and their situation of drug prospectus reading (p<0.05). Conclusions: As a result, it was found that individuals do not comply for rational drug use. In this respect; it is recommended to organize training programs the individuals to increase awareness about rational drug use and to perform the study on the most the sample.