Background. There is a lack of evidence-based information on medicine usein school-aged children. Existing studies suggest that theprevalence of medicine use for pains in school-age children ishigh and increasing. Studies that investigated cross-nationalpatterns in adolescents’ medicine use practice are rare. Thisstudy aims to investigate adolescents’ medicine use forheadache and stomach-ache in 18 countries or regions inEurope and the association between medicine use andfrequency of corresponding health complaints.MethodsA total of 89 715 adolescents from nationally representativesamples of adolescents (11-, 13, 15 year olds) from eighteencountries and regions in Europe were studied using the HealthBehaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) 2005/2006 survey.The prevalence of medicine use by age and sex during the pastmonth was estimated and multilevel modelling was used toinvestigate the relationships between medicine use andcorresponding weekly or monthly health complaint.ResultsThe prevalence of medicine use for pains varied substantiallyby country. The prevalence of medicine use for headacheranged from 30% in the French speaking part of Belgium andSwitzerland to 48% in France, and medicine use for stomachache from 13% in Greece to 41% in France. Medicine use forpains was significantly more common among girls than boys(P < 0.001) in all countries.Multilevel models for pooled samples revealed that bothindividual factors and country of residence contributedstatistically significantly to the variation in medicine useduring the past month. Among individual factors, thefrequency of headache or stomachache was the mostimportant. On the average, the odds of medicine use forpains increased twice for children with weekly pains comparedwith monthly.ConclusionsThe findings suggest the medicine use for headache andstomach-ache is common for school-age children in Europeand there is strong association with the frequency ofcorresponding health complaints. Therefore, medicine usecan be used as an indicator of school-aged children withsignificant individual burden of subjective health complaints.
Towards a European Diabetes Information System: from St.Vincent Declaration to EUDIP, EUCID, BIRO and EUBIROD. Are we getting closer?
Carinci F;
2010-01-01
Abstract
Background. There is a lack of evidence-based information on medicine usein school-aged children. Existing studies suggest that theprevalence of medicine use for pains in school-age children ishigh and increasing. Studies that investigated cross-nationalpatterns in adolescents’ medicine use practice are rare. Thisstudy aims to investigate adolescents’ medicine use forheadache and stomach-ache in 18 countries or regions inEurope and the association between medicine use andfrequency of corresponding health complaints.MethodsA total of 89 715 adolescents from nationally representativesamples of adolescents (11-, 13, 15 year olds) from eighteencountries and regions in Europe were studied using the HealthBehaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) 2005/2006 survey.The prevalence of medicine use by age and sex during the pastmonth was estimated and multilevel modelling was used toinvestigate the relationships between medicine use andcorresponding weekly or monthly health complaint.ResultsThe prevalence of medicine use for pains varied substantiallyby country. The prevalence of medicine use for headacheranged from 30% in the French speaking part of Belgium andSwitzerland to 48% in France, and medicine use for stomachache from 13% in Greece to 41% in France. Medicine use forpains was significantly more common among girls than boys(P < 0.001) in all countries.Multilevel models for pooled samples revealed that bothindividual factors and country of residence contributedstatistically significantly to the variation in medicine useduring the past month. Among individual factors, thefrequency of headache or stomachache was the mostimportant. On the average, the odds of medicine use forpains increased twice for children with weekly pains comparedwith monthly.ConclusionsThe findings suggest the medicine use for headache andstomach-ache is common for school-age children in Europeand there is strong association with the frequency ofcorresponding health complaints. Therefore, medicine usecan be used as an indicator of school-aged children withsignificant individual burden of subjective health complaints.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
