Polish pharmaceutical market is amongst Europe’s most rapidly growing markets, with estimated sales of ca. 20 billion PLN in 2006. OTC (over the counter) market in Poland started to emerge in 1994, mainly due to introduction of legal regulations that allowed advertising OTC drugs in the public media. It is observed that till today the OTC market is continuously expanding, although the dynamics of growth has slightly decreased.

Aims. The aim of the present paper was to study sociodemographic factors affecting consumption of nonprescription drugs in Poland, as well as to identify social groups within the population of Poles most frequently resorting to self-medication.

Methodology. The survey was carried out in 2005 at 50 randomly selected pharmacies throughout the country. An interviewer observed pharmacy customers buying nonprescription drugs in one of the following categories: painkillers, cold medicines, multivitamin products. 180 interviews were conducted for each product category. The research tool was a questionnaire developed for purposes of this study.

Study results and discussion. In Poland non-prescription drugs are predominantly purchased by women, individuals younger than 40 years of age, secondary school graduates and people with family. In comparison with overall sociodemographic structure of the Polish population, consumers of OTC drugs include more women, more better educated individuals (university or secondary education) and more people with family. Of all the analyzed sociodemographic attributes, education of the respondents seems to affect to the greatest extent the differences in purchasing drugs of particular product groups. The individuals declaring elementary or vocational education tend to acquire nonprescription analgesics more often than other respondents