ABSTRACT
Background: Self-medication (SM) is defined as the use of medication by a patient on his own inventiveness or on the suggestion of a pharmacist or a untrained person instead of consulting a medical practitioner (WHO guidelines, 2000). Being future medical practitioners, SM has a special influence in medical students and they inevitably urge SM practice themselves and also for others as they are perusing professional course and will be learning different drugs and their proper use. Aim and Objectives: We had undertaken this study to estimate the prevalence of SM and also to find out the factors that influence SM practices in the second, third, and final year undergraduate medical students. Materials and Methods: The prospective and questionnaire-based study was undertaken among undergraduate medical students in a tertiary care hospital, after getting approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee to obtain information on SM practices. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis of data. Results: In our study, 58% were females and 42% were males. About 81.5% of the students were aware about Over the Counter drugs. About 97% of students had no knowledge on safety of SM, 69.5% did not prefer taking SM, and 92% do not want to prefer SM for non-medical persons. Medical stores were the major (81%) of SM and fever was the major symptoms for which students took SM. Commonly used drug for SM was Paracetamol. Conclusion: Conscientious SM can be promoted in both the medical students and the general public. From the present study, we conclude that SM is quite common in undergraduate medical students that may be because of easy accessibility of drugs and information from text books and classroom teaching.
ABSTRACT
Background: Health-seeking behavior (HSB) refers to a series of actions taken to correct the perceived ill-health. Knowledge on HSB of the target population is pertinent to achieve health for all. To fulfill community perspectives and needs, health systems need to adapt their strategies, taking into account the findings from behavioral studies. HSB of a person is affected by a number of factors acting at various levels. Behavior of the population of denying health care at public sector needs rectification by improving the quality of services. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the HSB and factors affecting it among the households of urban field practice area, Bengaluru. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the urban field practice area of Bengaluru. The sample size was calculated to be 350 households. Data regarding sociodemographic profile, preferred health sector during illness, and other details were obtained by interview method using a pre-tested and semi-structured questionnaire. Results: Majority of households (269) agreed to that they were availing services from government health sector. However, still, it was noticed that 81 households (23.10%) did not avail any kind of services from government health sector. Most common reasons for not visiting government health sector were inconvenient timings (40.96% of responses), overcrowding (28.80%), and unsatisfactory services (21.40%). Conclusion: Households chose costly, satisfactory health services at private sector over low cost unsatisfactory health services at government health center.