Drug safety awareness and rational use of medicines among university students in greater Bandung: A cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Background: In Indonesia, compliance to the rational use of medicines (RUM) was 47.08% in community healthcare centers, and so might the university students. Objectives: The study aims to evaluate students' knowledge and attitude toward the RUM and identify the correlation between these parameters and drug safety awareness. Method: A cross-sectional study used the online questionnaire among university students in Greater Bandung Area from March-April 2022. Spearman’s rank was carried out in correlation analysis between the parameters. Result: In 342 subjects, 54.1% of students have moderate knowledge of RUM and drug safety awareness (56.7%). However, 80.1% of students have a high attitude towards RUM. Attitude toward RUM formed a significant, weak, and unidirectional correlation with knowledge (r = 0.292) and so did with safety awareness (r = 0.345). Conclusion: Students have a positive attitude towards RUM while having moderate knowledge of RUM and drug safety awareness.