Self‐rated health as predictor of medicine use in adolescence

PURPOSE: To examine the association between self-rated health (SRH) and medicine use for four common complaints: headache, stomach-ache, difficulties in getting to sleep and nervousness, in a nationally representative sample of adolescents. METHODS: The study population comprised of all students in the fifth, seventh and ninth grade (mean ages 11.6, 13.6 and 15.6 years) in a random sample of schools in Denmark 2002, participation rate 90.6%, n = 4.824. The students reported health problems, medicine use, social and psychosocial conditions in an anonymous and standardized questionnaire. The outcome measure was self-reported medicine use during the past month and the determinant was SRH measured by one item. RESULTS: There was an association between poor/fair SRH and medicine use for headache and stomach-ache. The associations remained statistically significant even after adjustment for frequency of the complaint for which the medicine was used: OR (95%CI) for medicine use for headache was 1.54 (1.10-2.14) among boys with poor/fair SRH and 1.50 (1.12-2.03) among girls with poor/fair SRH. A similar association was found between poor SRH and medicine use for stomach-ache for both boys (OR = 3.41 (2.09-5.55)) and girls (OR = 1.90 (1.36-2.67). Further, there was an association between poor/fair SRH and medicine use for difficulties in getting to sleep among girls, OR = 2.66 (1.26-5.63) but not among boys. There was no association between SRH and medicine use for nervousness. CONCLUSION: Poor/fair SRH is associated with medicine use for aches among Danish adolescents.