Assessment of self-medication with analgesics among rural community of South India

Abstract

World Health Organization defines self-medication (SM) as the self-administration of a medication in the absence of a current prescription and/or without consulting a healthcare professional. Analgesics are the most commonly abused drug as a self-medication for relieving pain of any kind among the people. Our aim was to assess the prevalence of self- medication with analgesics and find the social factors associated among the rural people in Southern India. A community based cross sectional study using cluster sampling technique, four villages (clusters) were randomly selected in a rural District and among 460 respondents belonging to age group 18 to 60 years were interviewed. The mean age in years was 48.4 ± 15.5. About 182(39.6%) were illiterates and many respondents belonged to Agricultural laborers 350(76.1). Self-medication with analgesics is practiced by 24.8% of the respondents. Reason for self-medication was to reduce the out-of-pocket expenditure (72.4%). About 65.8% respondents purchased analgesics over the counter from pharmacy. The prevalence of self‑medication with analgesics was relatively high which is a threat for the community and can lead to multi organ damage to among rural people. Universal policy on drug selling over the pharmacy counter should be strictly implemented.