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Gender Differences in Usage of Over-the-Counter Analgesics among Norwegian Adolescents

It is well known that over-the-counter analgesics can be effective for adolescents in providing relief from various symptoms. The most widely consumed over-the-counter drugs are analgesics (OTCAs). Evidence from Europe, including Norway, and United States, shows that usage of over-the counter (OTC) analgesics among adolescents is considerable. Furthermore, statistics indicate that the level of usage is on an increasing trend. Increased usage of analgesics could be a reason for concern as usage of analgesic medications purchased over the counter is not necessarily harmless. And it has been noted that females tend to have a higher usage compared to males. In this paper, the authors explored this gender difference.

The dataset consisted of 284,674 from Norwegian adolescents attending junior high school and high school between 2014 and 2017. The econometric approach consisted of applying ordered logistic regressions with usage of OTC analgesics as the dependent variable and a dichotomous gender variable as the independent variable. Control variables included variables such as frequency of physical and mental health problems and other sociodemographic variables. 

The results showed that 1) given everything else being equal, the female adolescents were predicted to have a significantly higher usage of OTC analgesics compared to the male adolescents; 2) increased frequency and severity of neck and shoulder pain, joint and muscle pain, nausea, palpitations, headache and stomachache predicted higher usage of OTC analgesics; 3) increased frequency of tiredness, sleep problems, unhappiness, sadness or depression, tenseness, being worried and being angry or aggressive was found to predict increased usage of OTC analgesics. However, a large proportion of the gender difference evaporates when controlling for various other determinants. 

In conclusion, a considerable part of the observed gender difference in OTC analgesic usage can be traced back to differences in frequency and severity of physical and mental health problems. Part of the gender difference in usage, however, remains unexplained. Furthermore, goodness of fit statistics from the multivariate model suggests that there are additional determinants to be found.


Article by Sindre Lorentzen, et al, from Norway and Sweden.

Full access: http://mrw.so/4FAjiy

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