Utilization of medicaments in the population of Serbia

The consumption of drugs and help remedies is progressively growing within the total health expenditures. Consequently, expenditures for drugs are growing, too. The objective of the paper is observing the characteristic of drugs usage by Serbia's population. The Institute of Public Health of Serbia made a survey in the whole territory of Serbia in 2000 and 2006 in order to reach such goal. The results have shown that people mostly buy drugs in private pharmacies (50. 7%) and get them per the doctor's prescription, too. (45.15%) About 1.3 % citizens cannot buy medicaments because they are too expensive for them. About 59% citizens pay for drugs, so incurring the costs. The urban population has the higher expenditures for buying drugs than suburban population, also females than males (43.8%: 35.1%) and richer population than the poors. Costs for medicaments rise with aging. 29.1% citizens of Serbia (and even 40.7% citizens of Belgrade) use drugs by themselves, without having doctor's prescriptions. Analgetics, vitamins and minerals are used in such way more often than other types of drugs. The population mostly uses medicaments for headache, hypertension, vitamins, minerals, drugs for heart diseases, sedatives, whereas the other types of medicaments, excluding antibiotics, are rarely used. People in Belgrade more often use all types of medicaments than population in Vojvodina, and females than males.