Almost half Portuguese can’t pay health expenses

A third of those questioned confirmed that in the last six months they had not bought all the medication prescribed by their doctor. When they did, those interviewed said they preferred generics over brand-name products, and 38% said they were in the habit of “self-medicating” (buying medicines they thought they needed, without checking first with any doctor…)

Only 45.3% said they followed their doctor’s advice over the duration of their medication. The main reason given for not following through to the end of the course was “improvement of symptoms within a few days”. The study was taken between 2nd and 10th May this year, in mainland Portugal, and involved 1.051 interviews with adults (both sexes).