• Ozlem Ozkan, Onur Hamzaoglu, Serdar Erdine, Ecehan Balta, and Mehmet Domac.
• Nursing Department, Kocaeli School of Health, Kocaeli University, Kocaeli, Turkey. ozlem.ozkan@kocaeli.edu.tr
• Rev Saude Publica. 2009 Feb 1;43(1):140-6.

ObjectiveUse of analgesics has been increasingly recognized as a major public health issue with important consequences in Turkey. The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence and patterns of analgesics usage and associated factors in adults with pain complaints.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in 15 cities selected from five demographic regions in Turkey. The study sample population comprised 1.909 adults 18-65 age groups suffering from pain. The sampling method was multi-step stratified weighted quota-adjusted sampling. Data were collected by face-to-face interviews using a semi-structured survey questionnaire consisting of 28 questions. Odds ratios were produced by logistic regression analyses.ResultsThe prevalence of analgesic use was 73.1%, and it was higher in females (75.7%; p<0.05), in subjects 45-54 years (81.4%; p<0.05), in subjects in rural areas (74.6%; p<0.05), in subjects in northern region (84.3%; p<0.05), in illiterate subjects (79.1%; p>0.05), and in subjects of lower socioeconomic status (74.1%; p>0.05). One in ten of the participants used non-prescription analgesics. Non-prescription analgesics were more prevalent among the 55-65 age groups (18.1%; p<0.05), among female (11.6%; p>0.05), among the urban population (10.7%; p>0.05), and in subjects of lower middle socioeconomic status (13.2%; p<0.05). Logistic regression showed statistically significant ORs only for age groups, duration of education, socioeconomic status, and demographic regions (p<0.05).ConclusionsThe results showed that the prevalence of analgesic use and prescription analgesic use is high in Turkey, and their use is related to sociodemographic characteristics.

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