Prevalence Rate Of Self-medication Research Articles

Assessment of self-medication practice for oral health problems among people of Varanasi, Uttar-Pradesh, India

Background: Self medication has been practiced for centuries in both industrialized and under developed countries. There are lots of literatures indicating people awareness regarding abuse of medicines and antibiotics without a doctor’s prescription, but there has not been much study conducted for dental illness. The present study aimed to gather information about self-medication pattern among people of Varanasi, Uttar-Pradesh and to identify the measures to curb these life-threatening practices.Methods: An observational based cross-sectional study was carried out in OPD of Faculty of Dental Sciences, IMS, BHU, Varanasi. The sample size comprised of 500 respondents. The SPS software was used to code, input, and analyze all descriptive data. Descriptive data analysis was performed and the results were provided as frequencies and percentage.Results: The response of survey received a perfect score of 100%. The prevalence rate of self medication was found to be 56.2%. The main reason for engaging in such life threatening practice was lack of time and ignorance. Analgesia was the most commonly utilized type of medication. Out of 281, 84 patients sought basic care from a pharmacist, whereas 49.2% patient approached to visit dentist only when their problem continued.Conclusions: The prevalence rate was higher in male than female. Controlling self-medication requires patient health awareness initiatives, community pharmacist help, and pharmacist continuing education. There is a need for intervention planning to encourage rational self-medication through mass media such as newspapers, magazines and TV.

Self-medication among the elderly population; a systematic review

Background: The elderly population is at an increased risk of several diseases and is more prone to be affected by adverse drug reactions. Self-medication is a practice that involves the administration of non-prescribed medication. Although self-medication of some medicines can be safe and is accepted globally, it may result in severe complications, especially among elders, as the metabolism of drugs can be changed due to aging. It is necessary to understand and find out the prevalence rate of self-medication among the elderly population. Aim: We aimed to assess the prevalence of self-medication among the elderly population. Methods: We searched for articles related to the current subject by exploring Google Scholar and PubMed databases starting from 2015 to 2021. The searching process involved using various terms to obtain all related articles; the terms used were a combination of “Self-medication and elderly population,” “self-medication and prevalence,” “self-medication and elders,” and “prevalence of self-medication and elders.” The inclusion criteria included full-text original articles conducted on the elderly population and conducted between 2015 and 2021. Results: A total of 90 articles were obtained; however, only 8 articles were eligible for the inclusion criteria. The 8 studies were from Iran, India, and 14 European countries, and included a total number of 33,739 participants. Conclusion: Self-medication is highly prevalent among the elderly population, and analgesics were the most commonly used medications. The leading cause for self-medication was a headache, whereas the significant driver of self-medication was financial problems.

An overview of self-medication: A major cause of antibiotic resistance and a threat to global public health.

Self-medication is the use of medicines by people on the basis of their own experience without consulting a doctor. People use medicines for pain management or to cure a disease and sometime this may be unnecessary. There are a lot of public and professional health concerns about misuse of medicines and globally physicians agree upon this rising issue that leads to antibiotic resistance. In developing countries, medicines without prescription are easily available which results in many adverse outcomes, especially bacterial resistance. Insufficient healthcare services and socioeconomic factors result in increased proportion of self-medication compared to drugs prescribed by physicians. The current narrative review was planned to focus on indicating prevalence rate of self-medication in different developed and under-developed countries, major risk factors and control of self-medication due to which antibiotic resistance rate can be minimised. The issue needs urgent attention of representative authorities for taking serious actions. Furthermore, arranging awareness seminars and implementing new policies/regulations to prevent the sale of any drug/antibiotic without prescription could play a vital role in bringing this alarming issue under control.

Prevalence, Knowledge, Practice and Perception of Self Medication among Pharmacy Students in a Nigerian tertiary Institution

The practice of self-medication has become a form of self-care and is a global trend that is encouraged when it deals with minor illnesses and with proper guide and information. In countries where there are no strict regulations and prescription drugs are freely dispensed, irresponsible self-medication is common. This study aimed to assess the prevalence, knowledge, practice and perception of self-medication among pharmacy students in University of Port Harcourt. The study included all pharmacy students from 200L to 500L who gave their consent to participate. Ethical approval was obtained from the University Ethics and Research Committee. Descriptive cross sectional study design was adopted. Pre-tested structured questionnaire was used to collect the required data. The questionnaire was structured in four parts: demographic; knowledge; practice and perception sections.A total of 476 pharmacy students responded and gave their consent to the study. 42.4% (202) were male and 57.6% (274) were female. The mean age of the population was 24.55±5.32years. Most of the respondents, 49.2% (234), were within the age of 20 – 25years, while 4.4% (21) were more than 30years. Most, 94.7% (451) were single. 37% were in 200L, 22.9% (109) in 400L, and 18.9% (90) in 500L. Prevalence rate of self-medication among these students was 83.8%. A significant (p>0.05) percentage, 69.8% (327) showed good knowledge of self-medication and agreed to the need to consult health professional before consuming medicines, and yet a good number, 51.4% (245) often practice self- medication. The most common source of information for their self-medication was textbooks/class materials, 31.1% (148). The respondents showed positive perception towards self- medication as many, 40.3% (192) claimed that self –medication is right /safe and should be encouraged. Knowledge about the medicine used (91.8%) (437)was the commonest reason for self –medication, while analgesic/antipyretic (91.6%) (436) was the commonest class of medicines used for self-medication. The next common class of medicine was antibiotics, (84.7%) (403) and herbal remedy was the least, 15.5% (74). Fever, 83.6% (398), headache 80.5% (383), were the most common ailment treated by self-medication. Dependence on textbooks/class materials as information source increases significantly (p>0.05) with increase in years of study. In conclusion self- medication is highly prevalent among the pharmacy students evaluated. There is need to steer these students towards responsible self- medication especially towards antibiotics stewardship.

Awareness of Assuit University Students about Self-Medication

Background: Self-medication is a common and regular practice of using medicines without any medical supervision by the people themselves for self-treatment. Aim of this study: to assess knowledge and reported practices of university students regarding self-medication and determine the prevalence of self-medication among university students at Assuit University. Subjects and Methods: a descriptive cross sectional study was used in this study which conducted at four faculties of Assiut University among 1035 of fourth grad who were selected through simple random sample. Two tools were utilized for data collection: Tool I: A structured self-administered questionnaire Tool II: to assess reported practices of self-medication among university students. Results: It was found that 76.2% of studied students were females and the prevalence rate of self-medication among them was 90.4% also 71.4% of them reported that fast solution to relieve pain was the most common reason for using self –medication. 84.4% and 62.1% of studied students had unsatisfactory knowledge and reported practices regarding self –medication. Conclusions: The prevalence of self-medication was high among university students in Assuit University. Most of studied students had un satisfactory knowledge and reported practices about self- medication. Recommendation: Periodic health education programs regarding self-medication are needed to enhance awareness among studied students.

Self-medication with Antibiotics in a primary care setting in King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

OBJECTIVES:The objectives of this study are to estimate the prevalence of self-medication with antibiotics in King Khalid University Hospital population and evaluate the factors affecting this behavior.MATERIALS AND METHODS:This was a cross-sectional study conducted at King Khalid university hospital from April to May 2016. A pretested self-administered questionnaire was handed to a random selection of 519 patients attending the primary care clinics . Data were entered into Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and sent to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were applied.RESULTS:The prevalence rate of self-medication with antibiotics was 40.8%. Older patients and males were most likely to use antibiotics without a prescription. The most common illnesses that made patients use antibiotics was upper respiratory tract infections (73.2%). Commercial pharmacies were the major source 82.8%. Only 27.8% patients consulted their physicians for the correct dosage . The previous experience with a similar illness (67.2%) and difficulty in obtaining medical help (29.3%) were the most common reasons for self-administration of antibiotics. Improved health condition (57.8%) was the main reason for stopping the use of antibiotics while lack of improvement in health status led to a shift to another antibiotic in 62.5% of the respondents.CONCLUSION:The prevalence of using antibiotics without a prescription is relatively high. Proper education of the public on the dangers of the misuse of antibiotics through the media might help to reduce this practice.

Self-medication among North Indian first-year undergraduate healthcare students: A questionnaire-based study

Background: Self-medication is the treatment of common health problems by a patient's own initiatives, without professional supervision. Throughout the world, healthcare students have been found to be more prone to indulge in this unhealthy practice. Aim: This study was conducted to assess the prevalence, practices, and perceptions regarding self-medication among healthcare students from northern India. Materials and Methods: The present survey-based study was conducted on 360 subjects (142 males and 218 females), aged 18-20 years. It included both medical and dental first-year undergraduate students, who were selected using convenience sampling. The data were collected using a validated, semistructured, and self-administered questionnaire. The results were presented as counts and percentages. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 13.0 (IBM corporation, Chicago, US) software was used for statistical analysis. Results: The prevalence rate of self-medication was 92.7%. The most common reasons cited were quick relief (90.4%) and illness too trivial for consultation (88.6%). Advice from pharmacist emerged as the main source of self-medication practices (95.8%). Analgesics (92.8%) and antibiotics (90.7%) were the most commonly used drugs, while the most common ailments for which self-medication was used were headaches/body aches (92.8%) and sore throat (85.6%). More than half of the participants had a positive attitude toward self-medication. Conclusion: A vast majority of the healthcare students are oblivious to the potential adverse side effects of self-medication. Therefore, there is an urgent need to appraise them regarding the dangers of indiscriminate drug use along with the implementation of stringent statutory regulations regarding the sale and availability of drugs.

English

AIM: Self medication with antibiotics has become a common practice among people, and more so among those with medical background. Dentists are one group who have knowledge and accessibility to antibiotics. Hence this study was aimed at knowing the prevalence of self medication with antibiotics among dentists reasons for not visiting the physician. RESULT: Prevalence rate of self medication among dentist was 78.18%. Most common cause for self medication were common cold, tooth ache and sore throat. Most common antibiotic used was azithromycin next to ampicillin. Most common reason for not visiting doctor was that participants were themselves a doctor. CONCLUSION: Though dentists have knowledge about antibiotics, knowledge on appropriate usage of antibiotics is poor. This may have a bad impact on practice. Hence they have to overcome the ego and take proper advice from physician which may help the community in curbing antibiotic resistance The only limitation of the study was small sample size as dentists from only two colleges were considered. There is a need for study in large number of

CONDITIONS, FREQUENCIES, AND SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS LEADING SELF MEDICATION PRACTICE IN SARGODHA AREA OF PUNJAB PAKISTAN

Objective: To assess the prevalence, attitude, awareness and practice of self medication amongst students of Sargodha University, Pakistan. Methods: A descriptive cross –sectional study was conducted in the period from the beginning of January 2013 to April 2013 in Sargodha University, Pakistan. Convenience sample was selected. Data was analyzed using SPSS. Results: The prevalence rate of self medication in study participants was found up to 83% that is 249/300. High prevalence rates of self medication were seen in conditions of common cold(87%), headache(82%) and other pains(83%), hence most commonly used medications were paracetamol (83%), other NSAIDS (67%), Antibiotics(50%) and vitamins(60%).High consultation cost (75%), minor illness cases(93%), having previous experience (70%), time shortage (59%), friend’s advice to take medicine (77%) are the main factors & 48% participants indulge in this practice due to easily availability of all drugs from drug stores w/o prescription , 59% found it convenient to use this practice and 75% (N=225) participants had no awareness about complications of medicines that are consumed w/o professional consultation. we found that there was no prominent difference of self medication practice in males and females and in different age groups and among different departments. Conclusion: Prevalence rate of self medication is alarming in university students. Thus further work should be done on larger scale and strict policies should be intimated to address this problem and give awareness to individuals about medication use.