Self Medication – Questionnaire Based Study for Information Gathering Amongst Community Pharmacists

Abstract

Background: For a growing population, pharmacy has become the first and often the only stop in the search for medicine/medical advice. Gathering sufficient information when handling self- medication requests in community pharmacies is an important factor in assisting patients to obtain appropriate health outcomes. Common types of information usually gathered will include patient identity, sign, symptoms, action taken, medical history and current medications being used. Methodology: The primary aim of this study is to assess the opinions of pharmacy employees regarding selfmedication, and to examine and summarize their views. The primary objective of this research is to evaluate the pharmacists’ views on self-medication, their perceptions of advertisements for OTC medicines, and their knowledge and awareness of people that purchase OTC medicine. A questionnaire based study was conducted. The questionnaire wasbe distributed to a total of 50 pharmacists. Data was analyzed using number and percentage of total participants (mean +_ and standard deviation) Results & Conclusion: Population falling into the age group between 35yrs to 50 years is more into self medication (49%, n=418) than any other age group. NSAIDs were the most common drugs that were asked for over the counter (39%, n=333). Previously prescribed by a doctor 384(45.26) was the most commonest reason forself medication.Our results highlighted the need to strengthen communication between patients and pharmacists as well as pharmacist and doctors. This study is aimed to ascertain pharmacist’s opinions