… Professor Dr Flora M Haaijer-Ruskamp is an expert in drug utilization studies. Her
research activities are focused on rational drug use, and effective strategies to improve this, in …

Unlike most other drugs that only affect individual patients if used incorrectly for self-medication,
misused antibiotics add to the global risk of increased spread of bacterial resistance. …

It is a challenge to improve public health within limited resources. Pharmaceutical policy
making is a greater challenge due to conflicting interests between key stakeholder groups. This …

We surveyed the populations of 19 European countries to compare the prevalence of
antimicrobial drug self-medication in the previous 12 months and intended self-medication and …

Background. To date, only a few studies have been carried out on the development and
progress of polypharmacy in relation to morbidity in general practices in The Netherlands. …

Background Elderly patients with multimorbidity who are treated according to guidelines use
a large number of drugs. This number of drugs increases the risk of adverse drug events (…

Background Antibiotics are widely-used medicines for which a more prudent use has been
advocated to minimize development of resistance. There are considerable cross-national …

Purpose Although the relevance of cultural factors for antibiotic use has been recognized, few
studies exist in Europe. We compared public attitudes, beliefs and knowledge concerning …

Background Self-medication with antibiotics occurs among the population in Europe,
particularly in southern and eastern countries. We studied the impact of predisposing factors (eg …

Background: Self-medication with antibiotics may increase the risk of inappropriate use and
the selection of resistant bacteria. One of the triggers for using self-medication may be past …