Community Medicine Abstracts - College of Medicine and Health ...

Project No. 30 (1993)Patterns of Medicine Utilization Among Patients in Al Ain Primary Health CareClinicsStudent Authors: Mona Qamber Abdulla Al-MullaFaculty Supervisors: Dr. M.M. Hossain, Dr. M.A.A. MoussaAbstract:Objectives To identify how widespread is the consumption of prescribed medicationswith exception of contraceptives and vaccines since they are preventive drugs ratherthan therapeutic one. And the objectives were to achieve a realistic picture aboutusing prescribed and non-prescribed medications, source, prescribe and pattern ofmisuse of these medications through self-treatment. In addition to that, differentattitudes towards traditional medicine, as a form of health care, were studied.Methodology This cross-sectional study was designed to interview 400 patients whoattending 2 randomly selected primary health care clinics in Al Ain city. Inclusioncriteria comprised UAE nationals, Gulf Arabs and other Arabs of all patients who areequal or above 14 years of age. It was completed by using a personal interview basedon a questionnaire which has been specially developed for the study.Results The result of this study shows that 66.3% of those interviewed took a form ofmodern medicine while 30% used a form of traditional remedies during the 4 weeksprior to the interview. The 4 weeks period breakdown shows that the rate of modernmedication’s use is significantly high during the 24 hour period. Consumption ofmodern medicine was higher among women than men. However, there was nosignificant difference between males and females regarding the use of traditionalremedies. The majority of patients who used modern medicine were in two age groups40-49 years (75%) and >=50 years (75%). For the traditional remedies, the majoritywere in the age group 40-49 years (44.6%). The consumption of modern medicationswas highest among Gulf Arabs (69.8%). Among university graduates the consumptionof modern medicine was 72.3% and for traditional remedies 41.5%. Physicians werethe major prescribers of modern medicine (74%) while traditional remedies weretaken as a self-treatment among 48% of patients.Conclusion It is concluded that self treatment is a common practice in our communityand despite the developments in health care systems traditional medicine is stillpopular.