Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practice of self-medication among undergraduate medical students in a tertiary care teaching hospital

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.