Modelo de crenças em saúde e a automedicação: uma análise de marketing social

Abstract

The unprecedented escalation of deaths in the context of the SarS-CoV-2 Pandemic in Brazil has drawn the attention of many involved and aroused practices throughout the population, with the aim of protecting or curing, even if unfounded, such as self-medication. The practice of self-medication is often part of the population's day, but in the context of the Covid-19 Pandemic these numbers have grown even more and are alarming, culminating in surprising adverse reactions and thus showing the effects of using medication without an adequate medical prescription. In this context, Social Marketing analyzes these practices and can positively contribute to changing this behavior, acting directly in communities using its tools. The objective of this work is to analyze, through the Health Belief Model, how self-medication practices take place between health professionals and lay people. HBM analyzes health-related habits that can cause the criteria to adopt or abandon healthy behaviors. This research, from an exploratory and qualitative approach, addressed through the factors that are related to the perception of severity, susceptibility, benefits and barriers to the practice of self-medication, linking to cue for action in habits and capacity of requirements to perform. The results indicated the trust in health professionals and the level of information of those involved in the medication for decision-making as the key to maintaining or changing behavior.