Medication use among adults in Korea: focusing on prescription drugs and lifestyle drugs

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to examine the use of medication among adults by comparing the pattern of outpatient prescription drug use with the pattern of long term taking lifestyle drug use. Furthermore, the study investigates factors associated with the use of medication, particularity focusing on socioeconomic factors. Korea Health Panel data of 2008 was used to conduct the study analysis. By performing four different logistic regression models, the study noticed different patterns of the medication use between prescription drugs and lifestyle drugs. More specifically, the study showed that adults with lower education level tend to more frequently receive prescriptions while adults with higher education as well as income level tend to more use lifestyle drugs than their counterparts. Furthermore, other control factors such as age and gender were statistically significant for the use of both prescription and lifestyle drugs in different patterns. The study findings expect that reimbursement structure of drugs may be significantly associated with the different patterns and accordingly the accessability of medicine in particularly vulnerable population. Therefore, these policy factors should be considered in future study to more comprehensively understand about the diverse patterns in the medication use.