Epidemiologia do acesso aos medicamentos e sua utilização em uma população assistida pelo Programa Saúde da Família

Abstract

The utilization of medicines is an important indicator of health and well-being. In addition to its pharmacological role, medicines often assume a symbolic function. The access to medicines, particularly among low-income families, is an important health challenge, due to the high impact of expenditures with health, and specifically with medicines, on the family budget. The objective of this study was to evaluate medicine access and utilization in a population covered by the Family Health Program (PSF) in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. It was detected that 55% of the individuals interviewed (N=2988) used at least one medicine in the 15 days prior to the interview. Using the same recall period, only 4% of the subjects reported failing to use a needed medicine. Among the medicines used, 42% were purchased, 51% were provided for free by the PSF and 7% were obtained by other sources. Almost 90% of the medicines prescribed by PSF physicians were provided for free. Another focus of this thesis was to evaluate knowledge and utilization of generic drugs in a population-based sample of adults living in the city of Pelotas, Brazil. Only 4% of the medicines used were generics. Although the theoretical knowledge on generic drugs was satisfactory, almost half of the subjects incorrectly classified a similar medicine as generic in a simulation using pictures. This thesis also contains a literature review on methodologies applied in household studies on medicine utilization. Out of the 54 papers which fulfilled the review inclusion criteria, most were carried out in Europe or North America, used cross-sectional designs, collected data using interviewers, and requested the presentation of the packaging of the medicines used. The recall period of 15 days was the most frequently used. Data presented in this thesis allow us to conclude that the frequency of medicine use is high, although the utilization of generic drugs is very low, probably due to the existence of cheaper medicines in the market. The access to medicines in a population covered by the PSF in Porto Alegre was high in quantitative terms.