ABSTRACT
Background: Self-medication is a common and regular practice of using medicines, common over-the-counter (OTC) drugs without any medical supervision, by the people themselves for self-treatment considering it a part of self-care in both developed and developing countries. It also encompasses utilization of surplus and left over medicine at home, seeking advices of surrounding people as friends and relatives for the medication. Prevalence rates of self-medication are reported to be higher in developing countries mostly due to fact that people generally considers it as a first aid in treating minor ailments or acute symptoms such as vomiting, headache, nausea, fever, cold etc. However, few other reasons reported in the literature that could lead to self-medication includes previous experience of treating similar diseases, knowledge of drugs and their use, incessant advertising and lack of availability of qualified health professionals. This study aimed to assess knowledge and practice of self-medication among undergraduate students in UDUS Methods: : A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among 299 undergraduate students selected by multistage sampling technique. Data was collected with a set of self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire. Results: Majority 283 (95%) of the respondents are aware of self-medication while 16 (5%) are not aware of selfmedication. A majority, 235 (78.6%) of the 299 respondents had ever engaged in the practice of self-medication. Most of the study subjects 221 (74%) had self-medicated in the last 6 months while 26.7% have not. Conclusion: This study demonstrated good knowledge of self-medication among undergraduate students with the majority having good knowledge of the dangers associated with self-medication as well as had ever engaged in self-medication. Organization of health weeks, school-based educational interventions and enlightenment program should be created to emphasize on the dangers of self-medication and the common side-effects of the frequently used drugs.