Self-medication among medical and pharmacy students in Bangladesh.

Naznin Alam,Nadia Saffoon,Riaz Uddin

doi:10.1186/s13104-015-1737-0

Abstract

BackgroundThis cross-sectional survey examined the pattern of self-medication and factors associated with this practice among medical and pharmacy students in context to Bangladesh.MethodsThe study used a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 500; 250 medical and 250 pharmacy, students participated in the study. As it is a comparative analysis between the medical and pharmacy students, we used independent t test and Chi square test.ResultsThe findings indicated that the impact of self-medication is almost similar in medical and pharmacy students. It was found that medical students were more careful about getting advice from a physician or seeking professional help from some healthcare personnel. About the safety of self-medication pharmacy students were more aware than medical students were. The study also showed that female and younger medical or pharmacy students were more aware about self-medication.ConclusionsThe current study presents a comprehensive picture of self-medication in medical and pharmacy students in Bangladesh. It is clear from the findings that practice of self-medication is highly prevalent in medical and pharmacy students in the country. This may potentially increase misuse or irrational use of medicines.

Highlights

This cross-sectional survey examined the pattern of self-medication and factors associated with this practice among medical and pharmacy students in context to Bangladesh
We can focus on reasons for self-medication, differences among medical and pharmacy students in using different types of self-medication only after the advice given by a physician or a pharmacist, reasons for
In New Delhi, India, it was observed that self-medication was considerably high among undergraduate medical and paramedical students in India and this situation was increased with medical knowledge [17]

Summary

Introduction

In a study from Portugal it was observed that there was lack of general knowledge on using antibiotic correctly among students [19] It was found in a telephone based population survey in the USA that, 58 % of the participants were not aware of the possible health danger associated with antibiotic use [20]. Many studies are found on self-medication, among which university students represent an interesting sample for several reasons as they use self-medication very often [22,23,24,25] They can be divided into two groups according to the assumption of some certain characteristics such as, the presence of medical subjects in their curricula or lack of that knowledge. Previous studies have shown that medical knowledge can have an important impact on self-medication among students [9], the general influence is not clear among them [26, 27]

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