Rational drug use knowledge level in adults, Tokat center example

Irrational drug use is an increasingly important problem. Physicians, pharmacists and patients are responsible for rational drug use. In this study, to determine the knowledge levels of adults in our province about rational drug use; It is also aimed to contribute to the literature by identifying the factors affecting the level of knowledge. When we accept the population of Tokat as the universe, the number of samples was determined as 180 with 80% power, 5% margin of error and 0.25 effect size with G power 3.1 program. Data was obtained via the questionnaire forms which are (Annex-2), that we prepared by examining the literature in terms of determining the factors affecting the level of rational drug use knowledge, and Annex 3, that the rational drug use scale, applied to patients who reffered to family medicine clinics of our university hospital. Verbal approvals of the respondents were taken before the survey. Analysis of datas was performed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 18 program (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL). It was considered significant when p <0,05 in all statistical analyzes. The average age of the participants was 40.02 ± 14.18, and 51% of participants were male. 62.8% of the participants had using rational drug knowledge. Rational drug use scale score average; women (p = 0,021), those with marital status is single (p = 0,016) and those with high school or higher education (p <0,001), those who do not use regular medication (p = 0,046), those living in the district center and city center (p = 0,011) was higher than other groups. In addition, approximately one third of the participants (32.2%) do not think it is wrong to stop taking the drug when they feel good and 40% of the participants thought that they could use herbal products instead of medication. In our study where we revealed the factors affecting the level of using rational drug knowledge, more than half of the participants had using rational drug knowledge. However, 37.2% share without rational drug use knowledge is too much to be neglected. It also revealed information gaps in false answers to propositions. In addition, the wrong answers to the proposals revealed the lack of information. From this point of view, it is clear that the society needs to be informed about rational drug use knowledge. In this context, great duties fall to family physicians, which are the first point of contact.