https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/34566 2026-04-14T11:32:28Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/34584 Title: Use and knowledge of medicines among adolescents in Malta Authors: Darmanin Ellul, Rita Abstract: Research on adolescents has mainly focused on the use of alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs but little has been done to investigate use and knowledge of medicines among this age group. The aim of this study was to investigate self-reported use and knowledge of medicines among adolescents in Malta. A self-administered questionnaire was used to survey the use and knowledge of medicines among fourth-form Junior Lyceum students. Data were collected among 474 boys and girls of mean age 15 years who were selected by stratified random sampling. The questionnaire investigated medicine knowledge, the prevalence of self-reported health complaints and medicine use during the previous 3 months for ear problems, hay fever and cough and cold; gastrointestinal problems; headache; and menstrual pain. Students also gave information on their use of eye drops, vitamins, topical skin medication, painkillers for sport injuries and antibiotics. A total of 52.0% of students experienced 3 or more health complaints and a total of 90.3% took between 1 to 9 different medicines during the previous 3 months. Statistically, girls used a significantly greater number of different medicines than boys (p < 0.01). The pharmacy was the most common source for obtaining medicines in the majority of responses (26.8%-76.9%). Of concern is that, 24.5% of the students reported that they had taken medicines without adult guidance. Furthermore, 24.7% of the respondents reported that they had obtained information about medicines from the media, friends, schoolmates or young relatives. Although in most cases, more than half of the students gave correct answers in the quiz assessing the students' knowledge of medicines, there were 40.6% of the items for which incorrect responses were obtained by a considerable 30.0% or greater proportion of the students. Another significant finding was the higher mean score obtained for knowledge of medicines by those who regularly took medicines when compared with those who did not report this behaviour (p < 0.05). Furthermore, those who took more than 2 medicines during the previous 3 months attained a higher mean score in their knowledge of medicines than those who did not take any medicine (p < 0.01). Of concern is that, those who took medicines without adult guidance were shown to possess less knowledge of medicines than those who either took medicines with adult guidance or else had not taken any medicine during the previous 3 months (p < 0.01). These findings show that a high proportion of adolescents used medicines with respect to common health complaints. Furthermore, in spite of the widespread use of medicines, the results showed that basic knowledge about the appropriate handling of medicines was lacking among the participants. Considerable proportions took medicines without any adult guidance and reported informal sources of information about medicines. Furthermore, the participants appeared to have been gaining knowledge about medicines through their medicine consumption practices rather than before using medicines. This leads to a potential risk, particularly in the case of autonomous use of medicines. It is therefore suggested that more information about medicines be built into school health education programs in the future. 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z