Prevalence and practice of self-medication among medical students

Objective: The use and misuse of drugs amongst university students is quite rampant. As information about the self-medication(SM) practices among medical students of Gulf Medical University (GMU) was not available, we aimed to identify the prevalence and practice of SM among the students and to assess the associating factors. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey including 247 medical students was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire. Students from first to fifth year were included in the study. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 19.0 and the association between SM and different variables was tested with Chi square test. Results: The majority of participating students were females with mean age of 21± 2.4 years. The one year period prevalence rate of SM with both prescribed and non-prescribed medications was 65%.The prevalence of SM in students from first to fifth year was 48.3%; 57.7%; 88.9%; 73.3% and 63.8% respectively. An association with age and SM was also observed. The most common sources of drugs were private pharmacies and stocks at home. The students mostly relied on self and parents for drug recommendation. The dependence on parents reduced and self-reliance increased significantly as the students’ age progressed. Majority of the self -medicating students (92.5%) read package inserts before using the drugs. Headache and flu symptoms were common Self-Medicated conditions and correspondingly, analgesics and antipyretics were most commonly used. Mild illness and previous experiences with the medicines were quoted as most common reasons for SM. Though 36% students reported that their knowledge about medicines was sufficient, high risk practices like altering dosage (59%); stopping medication (58.7%) were found to be prevalent. Conclusion: The prevalence of SM among medical students of GMU is associated with age and year of study. In view of the high risk practices followed, there is a need to emphasize responsible self-medication practices among the medical students.