scholarly journals Prevalence of self-medication and its pattern in medical students: a cross sectional study from Karnataka

Author(s):  
Shrinivas R. Raikar ◽  
Pradeep Javedar ◽  
Anant A. Takalkar

Background: Self-medication is becoming a common type of self-care behavior among the population of many countries. Obtaining and consuming drugs without the advice of physician either for diagnosis, prescription or surveillance is called self-medication. The objectives of the study were to study prevalence and existing pattern of self-medication and its determinants among the medical students.Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted involving 200 medical students by systemic random sampling method using pretested semi-structured proforma. Analysis was done using SPSS and results were presented. Chi square and odds ratio (OR) was used as statistical tool.Results: Out of 200 students, 66.5% students were from 22-24 years of age group (mean age 20.2±1.4 years, p<0.05). Prevalence of self-medication was 93%, of which 53.8% were girls and 46.2% were boys (p>0.05). Majority of the students (95.2%) were self-medicating with allopathy drugs. 51.6% responded that they were getting quick relief with self-medication. 82% were aware about the possible adverse effects (OR 0.5, p>0.05). Self-medication was practiced by 78% students for upper respiratory tract infection, headache (70%), fever (67.7%) and gastrointestinal upset (36%). Majority (83%) students consumed paracetamol tablet for various health related reasons followed by cough syrups (55.3%), nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (54.3%), antibiotics (23.1%).Conclusions: Prevalence of self-medication was high in spite of awareness of possible adverse effects amongst students. Also, the knowledge of selection of appropriate drug for self-medication was observed to be poor.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-85
Author(s):  
Shamaila Khalid ◽  
Ateeba Ayesha Khan ◽  
Musarrat Sultana

Background: Self-medication is unsupervised use of medication commonly practiced for minor or acute presenting symptoms. Inappropriate self-medication can lead to drug resistance, life-threatening adverse effects, drug dependence or aggravation of disease. This practice is becoming common among medical students due to their pharmacological knowledge and clinical posting despite the fact that they are aware of its harmful effects. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of medical students of all academic years from a public sector medical university. Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaire after verbal consent. Data was analyzed using SPSS-16. Results: Sample consisted of 324 students divided in two groups. Group 1 consisted of students of pre-clinical academic years whereas Group 2 consisted of students of clinical years. 79.48% of Group 1 and 81.54% of Group 2 practiced self-medication. Antipyretics and analgesics were the most common self-medicated medicines in Group 1. Group 2 showed greater self-use of antibiotics and anxiolytics compared to pre-clinical year students. The preference of drug selection was different for both groups. Whereas pre-clinical students preferred anti-diarrheal, clinical academic students preferred antibiotics for diarrhea treatment. Conclusions: Self-medication among medical students in highly prevalent despite awareness of adverse effects.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 633-639
Author(s):  
Bernard Baltazary Chuwa ◽  
Linna Abraham Njau ◽  
Kaizali Ivo Msigwa ◽  
Elichilia Shao

Background: Self medication is a common practice of using medicines without a medical supervision by the people them- selves. Self medication is likely to happen when people feel unwell, it is worse in the population with poor helth seeking be- havior. Therefore it is important to assess the prevalence and factors associated with self medication with antibiotics among University students in Moshi, Kilimanjaro Tanzania. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted from April-August 2019 at two Universities in Moshi, including one med- ical and one non medical. The study population were undergraduate students aged 18 and above, A self-filled questionnaire was used for data collection and data analyzed using the SPSS version 16 and association was tested using chi square. Results: Out 374 students enrolled 187 from each University, 126 were female and 248 were male with age ranging from 19 to 35 years with mean age of 23.91 years. The prevalence of self medication with antibiotics was 57% and the most com- mon used antibiotics was amoxicillin with prevalence of 32.08%. The common reported symptoms/diseases were headache (31.02%) followed by malaria and coughing with prevalence of 15.24% and 10.96% respectively. The commonest reasons of self medication reported to be emergency illness (38.77%) and delaying of hospital services (24.33%). The commonest effects reported among respondents which practiced self medication with antibiotics were worsening of the condition that they were suffering in (4.55%) and body rashes (2.67).There was no significant difference between self medication practices among medical and non medical students(p = 0.676). Conclusion: The prevalence of self medication with antibiotics was high among University students and there is no signif- icant difference in both medical and non medical students. The most feared outcome on self medication with antibiotics is antibiotic drug resistance which leads to treatment failure along with high financial costs and increase mortality rate following microbial infections. Keywords: Self-medication; antibiotics; University students; Moshi; Tanzania.


GIS Business ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 359-370
Author(s):  
Dr. Ravi S. Dalawai

Indian population is in growing trend from 942.2 million in 1994 to 1.36 billion in 2019.Among this six per cent of India's population was of the age 65 and above (UNFPA, 2019). Today the work culture is totally changed. Both husband and wife are forced to work in the current scenario and unable to take care of their parents. The changing structure created increased problems for old age people leads to loneliness, psychological, physical health and financial insecurity. The study paper provides insight into the social and demographic factor and health related sickness of the oldest people. This research explained the cross-sectional study included a representative sample (n=116) of adults aged ≥60 years. The sample was chosen using a four-stage stratified random-cluster survey sampling method .The Chi Square test and ANOVA test was analyzed using SPSS20.


Author(s):  
Dur-e- Nishat

Background: Family medicine is a field in which complete and detailed set of healthcare services are provided to the patients and their families. In developed countries, freshly graduated students choose family medicine as a priority for their career. However, in Pakistan it is not the case. The present study is undertaken to determine the perceptions of final year medical students’ about Family Medicine as a viable career. Methods: A total number of 504 students participated in the study. This was a cross-sectional study. The study participants were in their final year of medical college. Data was collected using a preapproved questionnaire. Data was entered and analyzed via SPSS version 17 and Chi-Square test was used post-stratification. Results: Only 14.3% (n=72) medical students had heard about Family Medicine. Only 18% (n=92) would select family medicine as a profession. The most frequent rationale for choosing the field of Family Medicine was the variety of patients seen in general practice (55.4% n=51). Conclusion: There is a dire need to focus on increasing awareness about the field of family medicine among medical students. The students should be counseled on the advantages along with the disadvantages of choosing this field as a medical profession.


Author(s):  
AA Toubasi ◽  
BR Khraisat ◽  
RB AbuAnzeh ◽  
HM Kalbouneh

Objective Medicine is considered one if not the most stressful educational field. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence of stress and poor sleeping quality among medical students and the association between them. Method This cross-sectional study was conducted at the University of Jordan on second- and third-year medical students. The questionnaire consisted of: 1) Demographics; 2) The assessment tools which were Pittsburgh Quality of Sleep Index (PSQI) and Kessler Psychological Distress Status (K10). Binary logistic regression, chi-square and linear regression were used to investigate the association between PSQI, K10, and their determinants. Results The mean for PSQI score was 6.76 ± 3.32. PSQI scores interpretation revealed that 61.7% of the 282 participants of this study were poor sleepers. Logistic regression results showed that only the category of not napping at all from the napping hours variable was significantly associated with sleeping quality. Furthermore, the mean of K10 scores was 24.5 ± 8.5. K10 scores revealed that 66.3% of the participants were stressed. Logistic regression results showed that gender and regular exercise were significantly associated with psychological distress. Additionally, chi-square test, logistic regression and linear regression showed that PSQI was significantly associated with K10 (P <0.01). Conclusions Stress and poor sleeping quality in medical students at the University of Jordan were highly prevalent and strongly associated. What determined PSQI was daytime napping, and for K10 were regular exercise and gender. Further investigations into stress and sleep quality in the Arabian region are needed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 08 (04) ◽  
pp. 221-225
Author(s):  
Beenish Fatima Alam ◽  
Hira Raza ◽  
Shizma junejo ◽  
Marium Azfar ◽  
Tuba Saleem ◽  
...  

Objective: To determine the differences of self-perception of halitosis and oral hygiene practices among the medical and dental undergraduate students. Methodology: A cross-sectional study conducted over duration of 9 months amongst the medical and dental undergraduate students of Bahria University Medical and Dental College. The questionnaires were distributed to 298 students. Questionnaire employed for this study was adopted and modified from the study conducted by Khalid Almas et al. Descriptive statistics were checked by means of percentages and frequency for all variables. Chi-square test was applied to check significant difference among the responses given by the medical and dental undergraduate students. Results: The response rate for the survey was about 85%. 55% of dental and 17 % of medical students were able to smell their breath. About having examination by dentist about 73% of medical students agreed as compared to 53% of dental students. Both medical and dental students preferred having examination done by the dentist. For management of halitosis, dentist was preferred by 62% of the dental students, while 97% of the medical students did not agree. 62% of the dental students preferred using traditional medications, while 82% of the medical students preferred using self-medications for treatment. Conclusion: The results suggest that there is not a high level of agreement among dental and medical students concerning the detection and management of halitosis. Although large percent of the respondents claimed to be aware of dentistry, our findings revealed low level of knowledge and attitude to Dentistry by the medical undergraduate students. Efforts should be made towards closing this knowledge gap to attain effective oral health.


Author(s):  
Chetanjit Baruah ◽  
Alpana P. Rabha ◽  
Hiranya Saikia

Background: Oral health is an integral part of general health and wellbeing of an individual at every stage of life. Good oral health knowledge is a requisite criterion for good oral health related behavior. So, this study was done to assess knowledge and practice about oral health and whether there is any difference of knowledge and practice about it among nursing and pharmacy students.Methods: A cross sectional study was done among 110 nursing and 90 pharmacy students in June 2019 by stratified random sampling method using a self-administered predesigned structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test were applied using SPSS software.Results: Knowledge and practice of pharmacy students was found to be better than nursing students.Conclusions: Knowledge and practice of the students should be improved through health education.


Author(s):  
Amar Fathi Mohamed Khalifa ◽  
Yasser Nabil AlKhudairy ◽  
Adel Ahmed Algahtani ◽  
Bandar Mohammed Abduljabbar ◽  
Fahad Majed Aldawsari ◽  
...  

Background: Over-the-counter-drugs (OTC) are drugs that can be obtained by patients without a prescription from a physician. In Saudi Arabia, it has been reported that more than half of university students practiced self-medication and used OTC drugs. Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study, among medical and non-medical students in Riyadh. The sample size was 421, by systemic random sampling. A pre-coded pre-tested online questionnaire was used. Data was analyzed using SPSS V 23. P-value ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Results: There was no significant relationship between what the participants were majoring in and the usage of OTC drugs (p value= 0.373). Gender also had no relation with the use of OTC (p value= 0.168). Panadol appeared as the most commonly used OTC drug 62.9% for the relief of the most commonly mentioned factor which is headache 50.12%.  Conclusion: Medical education didn’t have much of an effect on the use of OTC drugs. Moreover, professional guidance or advice was not considered most of the time for taking OTC, but the majority of respondents portrayed good behavior towards usage of OTC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 151-163
Author(s):  
Mohd Shaiful Ehsan Shalihin ◽  
Nuria Syafira Abd Muttalib ◽  
Nur Syahirah Azmi ◽  
Zahra Najwa Mohd Zin

Comprehensive care towards geriatric health can be sustained by having good knowledge and attitude among the providers. Hence, this research aims to measure the knowledge and attitude of the final year medical students towards geriatric health and determine the associated factors. A cross-sectional study was conducted among the students using structured questionnaires of Geriatric-Attitude-Scale and Palmore-Facts-on-Aging-Quiz was used. Data was analysed using Mann Whitney U test, Chi square test and Spearman correlation coefficient analysis for the association between the score and studied variables. Median score of students’ knowledges is at 14.00 (IQR 13.00) and mean score for attitude is 48.52 (+5.53) respectively. Place of residence (P= 0.01) and presence of grandparents (P= 0.04) were the significant factors that affected knowledge of students towards geriatrics while number of siblings (P= 0.05) influenced attitudes of students towards geriatrics. Improvement of current geriatric curriculum should be done with more refined implementation of gerontology course in the basic medical learning.


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