Medicine use behaviors of people in the city of Adana, Turkey [Adana İlindeki İnsanlarI{dotless}n İlaç kullanI{dotless}m alI{dotless}şkanlI{dotless}klarI{dotless}]

AIM: The purpose of our study is to examine the medicine use behaviors of people in Adana. METHOD: The planned sample size was 1,222. The "Rational Use of Drugs Questionnaire" prepared by us was applied to 1,111 voluntary subjects over 18 years old telephone survey. RESULTS: 57.2% of these participants said that they used drugs without consulting a doctor. 98.4% of these participants told that they used analgesics without consulting a doctor. 30.5% said that they used antibiotics without asking a doctor in cases of common cold; 47.9% told that they discontinue the antibiotics the doctor prescribed for them before completely finishing; 85.8% said that they checked the expiry date of the medicines. CONCLUSION: The average Rational Use of Drug Score of all the participants is found to be 68.3±13.5 on the scale of 100. This score shows that the knowledge of the people in Adana about rational use of drug is not sufficient and that education and awareness levels of the people should be raised