Abstract
Aims:To describe the knowledge, attitudes and practices of self-medication in college students and to analyse the predicting factors for the engagement in that behaviour.Design:This is a cross-sectional study involving students (n = 840) from a Portuguese university, selected through stratified and proportional sampling. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire containing, in addition to sociodemographic issues, a scale measuring knowledge about self-medication (α = .488), a scale measuring attitudes towards self-medication (α = .708) and questions about the patterns of self-medication practices (α = .445). Differences between outcomes and sociodemographics were analysed through independent t-tests and ANOVA. A generalised linear model was calculated to determine the predictive variables of self-medication.Results:Over half of the respondents ( 54.3%, n = 434) had used some form of self-medication during the preceding year. Students revealed poor knowledge about the referred practice, correctly answering 1.60 (SD = 0.936) questions in a total of 3, and favourable attitudes towards self-medication (M = 2.17, SD = 0.950, range 1–5). Attending engineering sciences (β = .718, 95% CI: 1.373–3.069, p < .001), being female (β = .866, 95% CI: 1.700–3.327, p < .001) and having negative attitudes towards self-medication (β = .367, 95% CI: 1.227–1.698, p < .001) predict the adoption of those practices.Conclusions:Self-medication is a common practice among university students, the level of self-medication knowledge is low and the low score of the level of attitudes revealed that students tended to have a correct positioning towards self-medication. Therefore, the recommendation to develop campaigns or educational programmes becomes obvious, in order to inform about the adverse effects of the use of non-prescribed medicine.
Highlights
Students belonging to the area of health sciences have been excluded from this research because we felt that their knowledge about health in general had the potential to generate some degree of bias in the results of the scales used in the present study, since scientific studies indicate that students in the health area display a higher level of knowledge when compared to those belonging to other areas of study (Xu et al, 2019)
The absence of information from courses belonging to the area of health sciences, a methodological choice, does not mean we have at all dismissed the importance of analysing the knowledge, attitudes and prevalence of self-medication practices in this group in future research, since the meta-analysis study carried out by Xu and colleagues (2019) has shown a significantly higher prevalence of self-medication with antibiotics among medical students when compared to non-medical students
Self-medication in the research sample is connected with female students, those who belong in the scientific area of engineering sciences and those with a highly negative level of attitudes towards self-medication
Summary
For the 2018/2019 academic year, 5447 students were registered in the first and third years of integrated bachelor’s and master’s degrees. We chose to divide the several undergraduate and master’s degrees in accordance with a criterion of scientific areas attended (complying with the definition provided and issued by the Foundation for Science and Technology): social and human sciences, judicial and economic sciences, exact and nature sciences and engineering sciences This cross-sectional research consisting of results obtained from questioning students in the college context (n 1⁄4 840) attending one university in Portugal has provided us with information gathered by resorting to a validated self-reported questionnaire without biochemical confirmation. The questionnaire included sociodemographic variables (sex, age, scientific area of study, academic year, weight and height (to calculate BMI), loving relationship, professional situation and current residence) and specific questions to measure the following variables: Prevalence of self-medication – “In the last 12 months, how many times have you consumed any of the following psychoactive substances as listed (without prescription): antidepressants/sedatives/ soothing/tranquilisers; analgesics/antiinflammatory medication; vitamins/food supplements”. Cronbach’s alpha for the scale calculated with the sample of this study was acceptable (a 1⁄4 .708)
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