Practice of Self-Medication among Medical and Non-Medical Undergraduate Level University Students in District Abbottabad

Abstract

Objective: To determine the practice of self-medication and its associated factors among the medical and non-medical undergraduate level university students in Abbottabad.

Study Design: Comparative cross sectional study

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the Department of Community Medicine, Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad for a period of 10 months from Nov 20, 2018 to Aug 31, 2019.

Materials and Methods: It was carried out on 400 undergraduate students with 200 medical and 200 non-medical students.  Data was gathered on a structured questionnaire and analysis was conducted both for descriptive and inferential statistics by SPSS version 20. Chi square test of association was employed to determine the association between self-medication and the independent variables. p value of ≤0.05 was considered significant.

Results: Out of 400 students participating in the research, self-medication practice was found in total 326(81.5%) students with 46% among medical and 35.5% among non-medical students. Relative frequency of self-medication out of 200 medical undergraduates was 184(92%) while out of 200 non-medical students it was 142(71%) with statistically significant association (p<0.001). Self-medication was also found to be associated significantly with gender and reasons for practicing self-medication (p < 0.001).  Most frequently used group of medicines for self-medication was analgesics 127 (63.5%) and the most usual symptom was pain 75(37.5%).

Conclusion: Self-medication is more frequent among medical undergraduate students. It was found to be associated with gender and multiple reasons for practicing self-medication.