30% Of Koreans Self-Medicate With Rx Drugs

In Korea, where most prescription-only medicines can be bought inpharmacies without presenting a script, people buying Rx drugs in this way account for around 30% of the total, according to a survey by Lee Kihyo, a professor at Inje University graduate school of public health, and Yang Jin-son, a pharmacist at the Pusan Kangso ward health center.

The survey included 647 people, including students at high schools and children at an elementary school, and their parents, states a report in Korea Newsreview. The rate of self-prescription was higher among people living in fishing and agrarian villages, with some 53.3% saying they did not seek professional medical advice when buying their medicines.

More than 40% of those surveyed said they chose to prescribe their own medicine as their symptoms were mild, and around 26% were of the view that it was safe and effective to do this. Around 5% believed that it would cost more to have pharmacists write out a prescription.