Researchers of the Institute of Sociological Sciences and Pedagogy of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW) conducted a study on self-treatment of Poles during the pandemic. Its results have been published in the “International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health”.

In the article titled “Self-Medication-Related Behaviors and Poland’s COVID-19 Lockdown”, Dr Monika Podkowińska of WULS-SGGW, Dr Marta Makowska, Dr Rafał Boguszewski of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, and Dr Michał Nowakowski of the Maria Curie Skłodowska University in Lublin describe the attitudes and behavior of Poles during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors wanted to answer whether lockdown and the related change in the functioning of the Polish health care system (popularization of telemedicine or easier access to prescriptions) resulted in changes in the behavior of Poles related to self-treatment.

The results of the research indicate that almost half of the respondents (45.6%) were engaged in at least one behavioral process related to self-treatment, 16.6% of the respondents were taking preventive drugs, and 16.8% were taking prescription drugs without consulting a doctor.