Prevalence and associated factors of self-medication in adults living in the Federal District, Brazil: a cross-sectional, population-based study.

OBJECTIVE: to assess the prevalence of self-medication and to investigate its associated factors in adults living in the Federal District, Brazil. METHODS: this is a cross-sectional population-based study conducted with adults selected through probabilistic sampling; self-medication prevalence was obtained from those who reported having used any medicine in the previous seven days; Poisson regression model with robust variance was applied to adjust the prevalence ratios. RESULTS: 1,820 individuals were interviewed, of which 646 had taken at least one medicine; self-medication prevalence was of 14.9% (95%CI: 12.6%;17.5%); the adjusted analysis showed negative association in people aged 50 to 65 years (PR=0.26; 95%CI: 0.15;0.47) and with chronic diseases (PR=0.38; 95%CI: 0.28;0.51); adults with difficulties in performing daily activities (PR=2.25; 95%CI: 1.43;3.53) practiced more self-medication. CONCLUSION: self-medication was associated to young adults and those with problems in performing daily activities.