Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of self medication among undergraduate medical students of Punjab
Journal Title: The Journal of Medical Research - Year 2017, Vol 3, Issue 3
Abstract
Backgrounds: Self medication involves the use of non-prescription medicines by people on their own initiative, resubmitting old prescriptions to purchase medicines repeatedly or sharing medicines with members of one's social circle. Starting from the presupposition that no pharmacologically active substance is innocuous to the body, selfmedication could be prejudicial to individual and collective health. This study was designed to assess the pattern and prevalence of self medication among undergraduate medical students of some medical colleges of Punjab especially since the patterns keep changing every year. Methods and Materials: It is a prospective and descriptive cross-sectional study conducted on 403 undergraduate medical students from various medical and nursing colleges across Punjab, using a pre-formed detailed questionnaire. Result: The ages of study sample ranged from 17 to 23 years of age with the ratio of male:female population being 140:263. Out of 403 students, 40.6 % reported self medication over the given period of time, out of which 33.12 % were habitual users. The most common reason for preferring self-medication included prior experience ( 34.21% ) followed by self confidence about the knowledge of drug ( 28.32 %) and for quick relief ( 26.81 %). The prevalence of self medication practices was highest amongst the 3rd year students and least amongst the 1st year students which can be attributed to the the fact that 40.42 % of students reported an increase in self medication after studying pharmacology in 2nd prof. The percentage of students suffering from a congenital or a pre-existing illness was a meagre 7 %. The most common illnesses prompting self medication included common cold( 49.83 %) followed closely by fever ( 33.72 %) and headache( 19.31 %). Antipyretics ( 18.62 %) and analgesics (46.14%) are the most common self-medicated drugs with vitamins( 15.81 %), native herbs( 9.64 %) and steroids( 5.4 %) being the less common ones. Old prescriptions ( 42.41 %) and pharmacist( 24.82 %) were the most common source of information. Regarding previous knowledge about the route, dose, half-life and interactions of various drugs, 66.5 %, 56.8%, 21.3 % and 23.8 % students were noted respectively.Percentage of students who reported side-effects was 48.3 %. Conclusion: Self-medication is highly prevalent amongst undergraduate medical students which assumes special significance since their attitude towards pharmacotherapy can have an impact on how they prescribe as future physicians. There is a paucity of literature on the same and thus a need to spread awareness regarding the dangers involved.
Authors and Affiliations
Mannat K Bhatia, Ripudaman Singh, Akashdeep Singh, B. L Bhardwaj
Keywords
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- EP ID EP442640
- DOI 10.31254/jmr.2017.3312
- Views 134
- Downloads 0
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