The association between knowledge level and common cold self-medication behaviour among students of non-health faculty

Abstract

Background: Self-medication is common among students all over the world. The most common reasons for self-medication were prior illness experience, non-seriousness of the illness, and drug availability. About 72.44% Indonesians of practice self-medication. Adequate knowledge sharing on drug usage would ensure appropriate and rational treatment. Objective: To determine the relationship between the level of knowledge of non-health faculty students about the common cold and the habit of self-medication during its treatment. Method: This is an observational study using a descriptive cross-sectional research design. The participants in this study were non-health faculty students from the Muhammadiyah University of Magelang and Lamongan, Indonesia who met the inclusion criteria. Knowledge level and behaviour level questionnaires were used. The Spearman Rank correlation test was used to analyse the data. Result: About 69.2% and 64.9% of the respondents had good knowledge, and behaviour respectively in the case of common cold self-medication. The Spearman Rank test analysis indicated a correlation between respondents’ knowledge and behaviour towards common cold self-medication. Meanwhile, the strength correlation indicated a weak relationship. Conclusion: Other factors could influence the self-medication habit besides knowledge status.