Abstract
Background
Despite the social vulnerability that exists in the Brazilian rural population, the drug use is a topic still little studied in the country.
Objective
The present work aims to analyze drug use and its association with sociodemographic, occupational, behavioral, and self-rated health characteristics in farmers.
Method
A cross-sectional epidemiological study of 790 male and female farmers from 18 to 59 years old, from Santa Maria de Jetibá. The drugs were grouped according to the Anatomical Therapeutic Classification System (ATC) at levels 1 and 2. Descriptive analysis of the data was performed (in absolute and relative frequencies) and associations between study variables and drug use by the chi-square test. The variables that were associated with the outcome with a significance level of 5% in the chi-square test were tested by binary logistic regression.
Results
The prevalence of drug utilization was 44.2%, being lower in males (30,3%) than in females (59,4%). After adjusted analysis, the drug use was associated with female gender, age 40 years and older and worse self-rated health status. The prevalence of polypharmacy was 6,6%. The most used drugs were antihypertensive (19,3%).
Conclusion
The study showed the importance of evaluating rural populations to subsidize policies and resources in Public Health.
Keywords:
drug use; farmers; pharmacoepidemiology; polypharmacy; population health