Medication use in adults living in Brasilia, Brazil: a cross-sectional, population-based study

To assess the prevalence of medicine use in adults of Brasilia and to elucidate the associated factors.

A cross-sectional study was conducted with adults (18 to 65 years) living in Brasilia, who were selected using a two-stage probabilistic sampling and interviewed in their home, from February to May 2012. The primary outcome was the use of medicines in the last 7 days. A Poisson regression with robust variance was employed to adjust for covariates following a hierarchical model.

The study included 1820 individuals (11% losses), 60% of which were women, and the mean age was 37 ± 12.6 years. The prevalence of drug consumption was 35.7% (95% confidence interval [95%CI]: 33.5%-37.9%). Medicine consumption was significantly higher in women (prevalence ratio [PR] = 1.54; 95%CI: 1.28-1.85); unemployed or retired people (PR = 1.35; 95%CI: 1.15-1.59); people with hypertension (PR = 2.33; 95%CI: 2.00-2.71), diabetes (PR = 1.46; 95%CI: 1.22-1.74), depression (PR = 1.32; 95%CI: 1.13-1.53), or other chronic diseases (PR = 1.50; 95%CI: 1.26-1.79); and study participants who had a recent medical consultation (PR = 1.49; 95%CI: 1.29-1.71). Medication use was significantly higher at older ages. The participants obtained about half of the drugs from the Brazilian public health system, but this access was significantly different according to the economic class.

Medication use was common among adults living in Brasilia and is associated with sex, age, health conditions, and access to healthcare.