Table 3.
Self-medication of farmers in a mountainous area in Vietnam.
| Characteristics | No inpatient and outpatient treatment | Inpatient or/and outpatient treatment | Total | p-value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | % | n | % | N | % | ||
| Behavior purchase and use of medications without medical prescription | 56 | 69.1 | 76 | 65.5 | 132 | 67.0 | 0.60 |
| Types of medicine were purchased and used without medical prescription | |||||||
| Pain relievers | 41 | 73.2 | 47 | 61.8 | 88 | 66.7 | 0.17 |
| Antibiotics | 24 | 29.6 | 40 | 34.5 | 64 | 32.5 | 0.47 |
| Sustenance | 9 | 11.1 | 19 | 16.4 | 28 | 14.2 | 0.30 |
| Functional food | 2 | 2.5 | 4 | 3.5 | 6 | 3.1 | 0.69 |
| Others | 7 | 8.6 | 12 | 10.3 | 19 | 9.6 | 0.69 |
| Criteria for self-purchase and use of medications | |||||||
| Remembered the name of the medication | 5 | 8.9 | 8 | 10.5 | 13 | 9.9 | 0.76 |
| Reused a previous prescription | 1 | 1.8 | 12 | 15.8 | 13 | 9.9 | 0.01 |
| Drugs given my unofficial medicine sellers | 54 | 96.4 | 60 | 79.0 | 114 | 86.4 | < 0.01 |
| Available medicine at home | 1 | 1.8 | 8 | 10.5 | 9 | 6.9 | 0.05 |
| Reason to self-purchase and use medications | |||||||
| Experienced | 3 | 5.4 | 20 | 26.3 | 23 | 17.4 | < 0.01 |
| It was an emergency | 3 | 5.4 | 5 | 6.6 | 8 | 6.1 | 0.77 |
| Supposed that disease is mild | 41 | 73.2 | 38 | 50.0 | 79 | 59.9 | 0.01 |
| Did not have time to go to the hospital | 8 | 14.3 | 21 | 27.6 | 29 | 22.0 | 0.07 |
| Did not have money to affort healthcare services | 2 | 3.6 | 10 | 13.2 | 12 | 9.1 | 0.06 |
| Distance is too far to the nearest medical center | 11 | 19.6 | 13 | 17.1 | 24 | 18.2 | 0.71 |