ABSTRACT
Self-medication is the selection and use of non-prescription medicines by individuals’ own initiatives to treat self-recognized illnesses or symptoms. It is practiced significantly worldwide even though its type, extent and reasons for its practice may vary. No data is available on the current status of self-medication practices among health sciences students of Ayder campus of Mekelle University (ACMU). Descriptive cross sectional study was conducted on 307 health sciences students in ACMU from April to June 2011. Pre-tested and validated questionnaires were employed as tools for data collection. Study populations were determined by using two stages stratified random sampling methods. Among 148 reported illnesses prior to the study period, 94(63.50%) were males and 48(36.50%) were females with mean age of 21.5(18-25) years. The prevalence of self-medication in this study was 43.24% with most frequently reported symptom being headache 33(51.56%) followed by cough and common cold 28(44.80%). The two main reasons for self-medication were prior experience 25(39.10%) and mildness of the disease 24(37.50%). Paracetamol 31(48.44%) and NSAIDs 27(42.20%) were the two most frequently consumed medications with drug retail outlets 26(40.63%) as the main source of drugs to practice self-medication. Self-decisions 41(64.00%) followed by family/friends 20(31.65%) were the two most frequently reported source of drug information for self-medication in this study. More than half of the respondents disagreed with the practice of self-medication in the present study. Moreover there were statistically significant differences between respondents who reported practicing self-medication based on gender, specific field of study and study year.