Analysis of the use of natural immunity restorative – enhancing drugs in pharmacy X of Kaunas city.

Analysis of the use of natural immunity restorative – enhancing drugs in pharmacy X of Kaunas city. Kristina Pilipavičienė Master's Thesis. Scientific supervisor of the work dr. Genovaitė Šimonienė-Kazlauskienė; Institute of Physiology and Pharmacology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. – Kaunas. Aim: To carry out an analysis of the use of natural immunity enhancers in the Kaunas Pharmacy X. Methods: During the period from 2016 September till 2017 March in the Kaunas Pharmacy X was analyzed the usage of food supplements and herbal medical products that enhance the immunity of clients in the treatment of colds and their prophylaxis. Theoretical analysis, empirical analysis and statistical methods of investigation were applied in the course of the research. In order to find out the opinion of the clients, an empirical survey was carried out using a questionnaire survey and monitoring was carried out. 424 questionnaires were distributed during the study. 360 questionnaires returned correctly filled out (responsibility 84,9%). Descriptive and graphical methods were chosen for the evaluation and analysis of the research results. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 23 and Microsoft Excel 2016 software. For establishing the main connections these methods were used in the research analysis: the percentage-frequency method, the averaging method, z-score method (Z criterion) for the identification of statistically significant data between different groups. Results: The total number of interviewed respondents - 360, 207 of them were using natural immunity enhancers. In the course of the research, the most commonly purchased preparations for strengthening immunity of natural origin were identified. The most commonly reported respondents were natural immunostimulators: reddish echinacea (46%, N = 98), Chinese ginseng preparations (38%, N = 83), bee products (7%, N = 16) and black eleuterococcus preparations (5%, N = 10). In the course of the study, it was found that 46%, N = 98 respondents used immuno-stimulants prophylactically to prevent the disease; 44%, N = 86 respondents used for general condition improvement and 10%, N = 23 respondents used for the treatment of colds. The main reason why respondents use deficient amount of natural immunity enhancers is the high cost of drugs (50%, N = 77). The unnecessity of these drugs (22%, N = 34), the lack of information of the usefulness (17%, N = 26) and ineffectiveness (11%, N = 17) as other unusing reasons were mentioned. It was found that the sales of immunity-enhancing drugs in the Pharmacy X were found to be 15%, N = 450 of the total sales of the product range of the pharmacy. Conclusions: Most respondents are worried about their health status, and they use a variety of natural remedies to enhance their immune system