Factors associated with medicine use among children from The 2004 Pelotas (Brazil) Birth Cohort Study Edilson Almeida de Oliveira 1 ; Marlos Rodrigues Domingues 2 ; Iná S Santos 2 ; Aluísio J D Barros 2 ; Andréa Dâmaso Bertoldi 2 1 Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos. São Leopoldo, RS, Brazil 2 Universidade Federal de Pelotas. Pelotas, RS, Brazil

BACKGROUND Medicine use among children is affected by many factors Frequently, social aspects are even more important than medical reasons Understanding medicine use patterns is one of the main goals of the pharmacoepidemiology May help prevent irrational use

OBJECTIVE To investigate factors associated with general medicine use among children from the 2004 Pelotas Birth Cohort at the ages of three, 12 and 24 months

METHODS The 2004 Pelotas Birth Cohort (Brazil) is the third population-based birth cohort to be conducted in the city Previous cohorts in 1982 and 1993 All children born during 2004 in the urban area of Pelotas were enrolled City's hospitals were visited on a daily basis by a trained staff of nutritionists in charge of interviews and anthropometric measurements

METHODS A prospective design was used to evaluate medicine use at the ages of three (N=3,985), 12 (N=3,907) and 24 months (N=3,868) Outcome: use of any medicine in the previous 15 days Independent variables included sociodemographic, perinatal, breastfeeding and maternal perception of child's health Unadjusted and adjusted analyses were performed using Poisson regression models Following a hierarchical model With robust adjustment for the variance

RESULTS From the beginning of the study to the 24 months visit, losses and refusals reached 6.5% The prevalence of medicine use ranged from 55-65% in the three periods In all follow-up visits, medicine use was positively related to maternal education * Prevalence ratios and 95% Confidence Intervals ** Wald’s Linear Trend

RESULTS At 3 months, after controlling for confounders, highest use was observed among children…

RESULTS At 12 and 24 months, after controlling for confounders, highest use was observed among children…

CONCLUSIONS Different variables influenced medicine use among children in the first two years of life and these associations changed according to children's age Most of the associated factors were related to the mother Some were related to ill health among the children

FUNDING SOURCES Supported by – World Health Organization (WHO) – National Council for Scientific and Technologic Development (CNPq) – National Program for Excellence Centers (PRONEX) – Ministry of Health – Child’s Pastoral – Wellcome Trust