Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Self-Medication among Medical Students of Women Medical and Dental College, Abbottabad

Abstract

A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in Women Medical & Dental College students in all professional years of MBBS to evaluate the tendency towards self-medication practices and the background knowledge of the students about self-medication. A predesigned questionnaire was implemented among two hundred students by simple random sampling. Data were analyzed by SPSS-23 version through descriptive statistics, spearman correlation and binomial logistic regressions. The study's findings indicate that analgesics are the most frequently used self-medication, with antibiotics coming in second. Self-medication awareness was most commonly conveyed through family members and friends (65%), media (20%), books (10%) and miscellaneous (5 %). Self-medication was practiced mostly by 1^st and 4^th year MBBS students, with a higher frequency of (65%) while only 35 % students were from 2^nd, 3^rd and final year MBBS. Adverse effects were: marked headache (40%), GIT disturbances (35%), sleep disturbances (15%) and miscellaneous (10%). Analgesics were available from online drug stores, while muscle relaxants were available through local pharmacies, anxiolytics and antibiotics were mostly received through friends and family, miscellaneous medicines are only available from online pharmacies. Pearson correlation was significant at the 0.0 level and two-tailed at 0.05 level, knowledge of self-medication shows a positive correlation towards the side effects observed and adverse effects. Students below 21 years of age and above 23 years of age were very less vulnerable to using self-medication. Over burning academic activities and easy availability were the most triggering factors to adopt self-medication. Students need health education regarding the pros and cons of self-medication from teachers and administration.