Other factors associated with self-prescription of analgesic consumption were the absence of co-morbid conditions, only for those subjects suffering from headaches and excellent/good perception of health status. Previous studies had shown that people with chronic diseases or poor perception of health status are more likely to use analgesic medication [14,26,38] which is in accordance with our results. This observation may be related to cultural attitudes to pain [1] or the fact that individuals who self-medicate visit their doctor less often since their pain is less severe