IADR Abstract Archives
Digital Health Literacy and Self-medication in Brazilian Adolescents
Objectives: Self-medication in adolescence is a challenge to health education. We evaluated the association between Oral Health Literacy (OHL), Digital Health Literacy (DHL), and self-medication in Brazilian adolescents.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, in which questionnaires were applied to 260 adolescents enrolled in public schools in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, addressing issues such as socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, medication usage in the previous 30 days, and self-medication influenced by online information. To evaluate OHL and DHL the validated Brazilian versions for young adults/adolescents of the Rapid Estimate Adult Literacy in Medicine and Dentistry (REALMD-20) questionnaire and the Digital Health Literacy Instrument (DHLI-BrA: self-report + practical performance) were applied. Binary logistic regression was performed to assess the factors associated with self-medication.
Results: The participants' mean age was 15.6 years, and 55% were female. The average household income was approximately US$578.10 and 79% of parents/caregivers had 9 or more years of formal schooling. Among participants that used medication in the last 30 days, antiallergic and analgesic were the most cited (27% and 26%), followed by anxiolytic/antidepressants (19%), bronchodilators (14%) and antibiotics (12%). Twenty-two percent of the participants reported self-medicating. There was no association between OHL levels (REALMD-20 scores) or DHL levels (DHLI-BrA scores) and the report of self-medication by adolescents. However, those who had higher scores in the self-report domain of the ability to search for online health information in the DHLI-BrA instrument showed increased chances of performing self-medication influenced by online information (OR:1.79; IC95%1.09-2.93) when adjusted for socioeconomic and demographic variables.
Conclusions: Adolescents that self-assess as having better abilities to search for health information online were more likely to perform self-medication based on online information. This finding highlights the importance of rational use of medication awareness actions for this population, since, for them, a better self-perception of LDH could encourage this harmful practice.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, in which questionnaires were applied to 260 adolescents enrolled in public schools in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, addressing issues such as socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, medication usage in the previous 30 days, and self-medication influenced by online information. To evaluate OHL and DHL the validated Brazilian versions for young adults/adolescents of the Rapid Estimate Adult Literacy in Medicine and Dentistry (REALMD-20) questionnaire and the Digital Health Literacy Instrument (DHLI-BrA: self-report + practical performance) were applied. Binary logistic regression was performed to assess the factors associated with self-medication.
Results: The participants' mean age was 15.6 years, and 55% were female. The average household income was approximately US$578.10 and 79% of parents/caregivers had 9 or more years of formal schooling. Among participants that used medication in the last 30 days, antiallergic and analgesic were the most cited (27% and 26%), followed by anxiolytic/antidepressants (19%), bronchodilators (14%) and antibiotics (12%). Twenty-two percent of the participants reported self-medicating. There was no association between OHL levels (REALMD-20 scores) or DHL levels (DHLI-BrA scores) and the report of self-medication by adolescents. However, those who had higher scores in the self-report domain of the ability to search for online health information in the DHLI-BrA instrument showed increased chances of performing self-medication influenced by online information (OR:1.79; IC95%1.09-2.93) when adjusted for socioeconomic and demographic variables.
Conclusions: Adolescents that self-assess as having better abilities to search for health information online were more likely to perform self-medication based on online information. This finding highlights the importance of rational use of medication awareness actions for this population, since, for them, a better self-perception of LDH could encourage this harmful practice.