Diferencias en la automedicación en la población adulta espa？ola según el país de origen

objectives: to explore the factors determining self-medication among the spanish adult population, paying special attention to differences in pharmaceutical consumption patterns between the immigrant and autochthonous populations in spain. methods: logistic regression models were used to evaluate the effect of several demographic, socioeconomic, lifestyle, and health-related variables on self-medication. data were drawn from the adult sample of the 2006 spanish national health survey, which included 29,478 individuals over 15 years old. results: the results show that individuals at higher risk of self-medication were young, with a positive perception of health and no chronic diseases, frequent consumers of alcohol, widowers, holders of a private medical insurance policy not contracted through the civil servants' mutual funds, residents in the autonomous communities of madrid or valencia, and individuals born in central or eastern europe. conclusions: identifying the profile of self-medicated drug users in spain may help health authorities to target high risk individuals in order to comply with european union public health goals.