There is currently limited comprehensive information about what medicines Australians take, why they take the medicines they do and what problems, if any, they might be having.

The National Census of Medicines Use in Australia is a research project about how Australians use their medicines, including prescription, non-prescription and complementary medicines. The project is being run by NPS in partnership with the University of Melbourne.

The aims of this project are to:

• understand the pattern of use of prescription, non-prescription and complementary medicines
• estimate the prevalence of potentially serious medicine-medicine interactions
• better understand adverse drug events
• investigate information-seeking behaviour around medicines.

The research will be conducted between June 2009 and July 2010. This first phase of this research is a survey of a random sample of Australians aged 50 years and older, taken from the electoral roll. The questionnaires will be mailed in four waves to account for seasonal variation in medicines use. Survey participants who agree to assist with further research will participate in interviews to assess the reliability of the questionnaire and to collect more detailed information about how they make decision about their medicines. The second phase of the research will be conducted in 2010/11 with Australian 18-49 years.

Phase 1

• Wave 1 - Completed
• Wave 2 - Completed
• Questionnaire reliability interviews - Completed
• Wave 3 - Completed
• Wave 4 - In field
• Interviews about medicines decisions - Starting early 2010
  

Phase 2 - to begin in late 2010

The results from this research will be used to inform NPS programs to help Australians use medicines safely and effectively.

Footer