Abstract
Objectives: Self-medication is becoming very common in our routine life which is an unhealthy and risky practice in a few instances. The present study was carried out to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practice of self-medication among students of Charotar University of Science and Technology (CHARUSAT).
 Methods: A pre-validated questionnaire was prepared and distributed among the students. Data was collected and analyzed using Microsoft Excel and the results expressed as counts and percentages.
 Results: A total of 431 students participated voluntarily in the study. The most common reason for taking self-medication was found in 70% of total students. We found that the source of information of the drugs used for self-medication was “previous prescription (57%)” and source of drugs was “medical store (66%).” Only (46%) students accepted the fact that they always visited a qualified practitioner whenever they felt ill. Most of the students took self-medication for headache (82%) followed by cough, cold, and sore throat (62%) and fever (57%). Of total 431 students, most of the students took analgesics (78%) as self-medication followed by lozenges (50%).
 Conclusion: Self-medication was common in nearly 70% of university students. They provided the reason that “no needs to visit the doctor for minor illness.” Cough and cold preparations were taken by 82% population as self-medication.
Highlights
Self-medication is a common and regular practice of using medicines, common over-the-counter (OTC) drugs without any medical supervision, by the people themselves for self-treatment, considering it a part of selfcare in both developed and developing countries [1,2]
Few other reasons reported that could lead to self-medication includes previous experience of treating similar diseases, knowledge of drugs and their use, incessant advertising, and lack of availability of qualified health professionals [1]
Self-medication was common in nearly 70% of our university students
Summary
Self-medication is a common and regular practice of using medicines, common over-the-counter (OTC) drugs without any medical supervision, by the people themselves for self-treatment, considering it a part of selfcare in both developed and developing countries [1,2]. Self-medication is reported to be higher in developing countries, mostly due to the fact that people generally consider it as first aid in treating minor ailments or acute symptoms such as vomiting, headache, nausea, fever, and cold [3]. Few other reasons reported that could lead to self-medication includes previous experience of treating similar diseases, knowledge of drugs and their use, incessant advertising, and lack of availability of qualified health professionals [1]. There are many factors that influence the practice of self-medication among students such as easy availability of drugs, advertising of drug manufacturers, and previous experiences with symptoms or disease [4,5]. Irrational use of self-medication may increase the risk of adverse events, bacterial infection, hypersensitivity, drug resistance, drug withdrawal symptom, and of masking disease which can delay correct diagnosis [6]. The source of self-medication is usually families, friends, pharmacist, previous prescribed drugs, books, drug advertisement, and internet [8]
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