Clinical Research Directory

Promoting Safe Medication Practices in the Classroom

Self-medication has traditionally been defined as the consumption of medicines, herbs, and home remedies on one's own initiative or on the advice of another person, without consulting a doctor. In Spain, the consumption of non-prescription drugs is quite widespread among young people, since more than half of them have used medications without a medical prescription in the last year. This high prevalence of self-medication among Spanish youth seems to be driven by various factors that encourage this practice. These include the increase in over-the-counter medications, delays in obtaining appointments at health centers, the influence of common family self-care practices, and the population's greater knowledge of and interest in health-related issues. Inappropriate use of medications constitutes a public health problem and can cause significant risks to users' health, such as adverse reactions, drug resistance, and complications in diagnosing diseases, since it can lead to the masking of symptoms, as well as an increase in morbidity. However, not all self-medication practices are harmful. Responsible self-medication refers to the use of over-the-counter medications (without a prescription) to treat common and mild symptoms (e.g., fever, mild pain, colds) for a reasonable period of time (two to three days, after which a doctor should be consulted if no improvement occurs). The benefits of responsible self-medication include convenience for the patient, reinforcement of personal autonomy through self-care, reduction of healthcare professionals' workload, and decreased costs to the healthcare system. In this regard, responsible self-medication not only provides individual and collective benefits but also promotes the development of personal autonomy, a key factor influencing young people's tendency to self-medicate. Attitudes toward autonomous medication use in young people are influenced by individual variables such as emotional regulation, family habits, peer influence, quality of life, and the use of other substances. Given that these factors-greater access to medications, delays in healthcare access, family self-care practices, and individual psychosocial characteristics-appear to drive self-medication behaviors among youth, it is hypothesized that an educational intervention developed with the support of artificial intelligence, and focused on the responsible and safe use of medications, will improve young people's knowledge and attitudes toward self-medication. By targeting both knowledge and attitudes, the intervention aims to strengthen responsible practices while fostering autonomy and informed decision-making in medication use.

Telecommunication Technology-based Online Survey

The aim of this study is to identify and assess new health-associated risk factors, including clinical-pharmacological risk factors. The cohort is built using telecommunication approaches. The associations between clinical-pharmacological, social, demographic, behavioral, and environmental characteristics will be assessed. The continuous depersonalized online survey is performed using the original informational resources in the form of specially designed web-site aimed at identification and assessment of population-based pharmacotherapy patterns including characteristics of self-medication, biologically active food supplement intake, polypharmacy, and adverse drug-drug interactions in the people residing in the ecological conditions of various regions of the country. The invitations to participate in the online survey are sent via the SMS messages using the SMS-Target tool provided by OOO T2 Mobile Company. The survey is performed online at www.zdorov.tpu.ru and www.zdorov.expert both specifically designed for questionnaire publication and data accumulation.

Overview of Self-medication Among French Navy Personnel

The goal of this cross-sectional descriptive observational study is to assess the extent of self-medication among the crews of surface ships at the Toulon naval base. This study could include healthy volunteers, or participants with well-controlled chronic pathologies enabling them to be fit for embarkation, who are currently being deployed for at least 4 weeks on a surface ship at the naval base. Participants will tick and complete a questionnaire (between 15 and 30 minutes) after 4 consecutive weeks on the ship.