Medical Students' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors Regarding Self-Medication and Rational Drug use

Abstract

Background: Patients who use drugs in a rational way should get the medicine that is right for them, in the right dose, for the right amount of time, and at the lowest cost to them and their community. In reality, prescribing does not always follow these ideals. Instead, prescribing that is not suitable or logical is what happens most of the time. The study's goals are to find out how common self-medication and legal drug use are among first-year college students in Madinah city so that knowledge in this area can be kept up to date. Methods: The study used a cross-sectional design and looked at medical students in their first year. The sample size was calculated using the Epi Info program, and the number of students was 357 in Madinah City between September 2022 and September 2023. A poll was sent up in the air. As a result, when participants experienced side effects while taking medication, 28.9% stopped taking it, 28.2% talked to their doctor, 19.6% talked to their pharmacist, 13.2% stopped taking the medication and started a new one that had the same effect, 6.2% talked to their family, and 3.9% did nothing. Conclusions: Medical students don't really understand, think about, or act on self-medication or drugs, even though more and more of them are taking antibiotics and medications they didn't get given.