Consumers And Self-Medication: World Studies

Studies conducted worldwide in the last year by the over-the-counter drug industry have found that consumers want clearer and more understandable wording on the labels of OTC products, according to Jerome Reinstein, director-general of the World Federation of Proprietary Medicine Manufacturers.

He told a Drug Information Association self-medication symposium in Mexico this summer that the world OTC drug market is predicted to climb from $37 billion today to $49 billion by 2000. At the WFPMM general assembly in 1991, 18 national studies of self-medication around the world were compared, while today there are over 30 such studies, both quantitative and qualitative.

The USA Nonprescription Drug Manufacturers Association has recently compiled 11 national consumer studies on self medication. These show that Americans treat over a third of their everyday health problems with OTCs, higher than the 23%-27% of minor ailments treated thus in other equally developed countries.