RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To survey the habits of public drug use in China and its reasons and to put forward countermeasures so as to provide reference for government and decision-making department. METHODS: From Nov. 2008 to Feb. 2009, questionnaire survey was adopted in 31 provincial administrative regions except for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. 26 000 questionnaires were collected and 1 100 physicians were interviewed. SPSS17.0 software was used to analyze 11 796 valid questionnaires statistically. The frequency of words used by physicians was counted. RESULTS: The residents don’t have enough knowledge to support them to use medicine rationally. And they are not compliant with prescription but take medicine by arbitrariness. 44.88% of residents don’t buy medicines according to prescriptions and 74.39% don’t take medicine following treatment course, stop taking medicine once symptom relieve or change the category of drugs frequently. CONCLUSION: The improvement of pharmaceutical market environment, enhancement of medication guide and popularization of medication knowledge can promote rational use of drug.