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Factors Associated With Drug Consumption Without Scientific Evidence in Patients With Mild COVID-19 in Peru
David R Soriano-Moreno1, Daniel Fernandez-Guzman, Lucero Sangster-Carrasco2
1From the Unidad de Investigación Clínica y Epidemiológica, Escuela de Medicina, Universidad Peruana Unión, Lima.
Objective:
This study aimed to evaluate the factors associated with the consumption of drugs without scientific evidence in patients with mild COVID-19 infection in Peru.
Methods:
An analytical cross-sectional study was carried out including 372 adult patients with a history of mild COVID-19 disease. Factors associated with drug consumption were evaluated by Poisson regressions with robust variance adjustment using the bootstrapping resampling method.
Results:
Seventy-two percent consumed some medication without scientific evidence, with antibiotics (71%) and ivermectin for human use (68%) being the most commonly used. Factors associated with the consumption of drugs to treat mild COVID-19 infection were thinking that the drugs are not effective (adjusted prevalence ratio, 0.55; 95% confidence interval, 0.41-0.74) and not being informed about the efficacy of the drugs (adjusted prevalence ratio, 0.48; 95% confidence interval, 0.36-0.65).
Conclusions:
Education of the population seems to be the main factor that increases the consumption of drugs without scientific evidence in the Peruvian population to treat mild COVID-19.
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