scholarly journals Knowledge and Practice of Self-medication among Undergraduate Medical Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anishma Karmacharya ◽  
Bipashwi Nath Uprety ◽  
Ravi Shankar Pathiyil ◽  
Sudesh Gyawali

Introduction: Self-medication is an important aspect of self-care. It is a common practice in society and medical students are no exception. The aim of this study was to explore the knowledge and practice of self-medication among students of a medical school in Western Nepal. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among basic science and clinical students after obtaining prior consent from those willing to participate. Respondents’ degree of agreement with a set of 25 statements was noted using Likert scale to assess their knowledge. The practice of self-medication was studied by asking about the use of selected groups of medicines during the past one-year period and noting the pattern of use. Results: Three hundred and thirty of the 356 students (92.6%) participated in the study. Mean knowledge score was 93.2 (SD = 8.1). Self-medication was practiced by 83.3% (n = 275) of respondents. Knowledge about self-medication differed among respondents according to gender (p = 0.03) and nationality (p = 0.04) but not other variables. Practice of self-medication was associated with father’s profession (p = 0.03) and nationality of the respondents (p = 0.04). Conclusions: Students’ knowledge about self-medication was good and they commonly practiced self-medication. Pain-killers were the most commonly used drug.

Author(s):  
Krutarth R. Brahmbhatt ◽  
Amul B. Patel

Background: Antimicrobial-resistant organisms are spreading worldwide, and the pipeline for new antimicrobials remains meager. The next generation of doctors must be better prepared to use antimicrobials more sparingly and appropriately.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical students of GMERS Medical College Junagadh from January to May 2017. Self-administered structured close ended questionnaire in English was used. Pearson’s correlation co-efficient, t test and ANOVA were used as tests of significance.Results: Total 130 students participated in the study. Participation of females (48.5%) and males (51.5%) was almost equal. Almost 60% participants had adequate knowledge about antimicrobial resistance. The mean antimicrobial resistance knowledge score of participants was 22.7 (SD: ±5.27, min: 8, max: 37).Conclusions:Important finding of the study was that just one forth of the participants agreed that information they have received so far in medical course regarding antimicrobial resistance is adequate. The budding doctors should receive correct, adequate information regarding antimicrobial resistance.  


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (COVID19-S4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Azal Ikhaq ◽  
Hunniya Bint E Riaz ◽  
Imtiaz Bashir ◽  
Farhat Ijaz

Objective: To assess the knowledge, awareness and attitudes of medical students towards recently discovered coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted on medical students in CMH Lahore Medical College,(LMC), Institute of Dentistry (IOD). A questionnaire containing demographic information, 14 knowledge and eight attitude items was completed by 384 participants. Results: Overall, >90% people were aware about the etiology, mode of transmission and possible symptoms; however, very few of them knew about the in-depth details. Knowledge score revealed that 80% of participants had sufficient knowledge about coronavirus. MBBS students and nursing Students had significantly better knowledge in comparison with other students. In terms of attitude, >80% of students showed positive attitudes among which the nursing students were dominant. Conclusion: The medical students of CMH LMC showed a satisfactory level of awareness and attitudes towards COVID-19 with an obvious difference with regard to disciplines. More educational efforts with periodic educational interventions are still needed about the current pandemic. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.COVID19-S4.2636 How to cite this:Ikhlaq A, Bint-e-Riaz H, Bashir I, Ijaz F. Awareness and Attitude of Undergraduate Medical Students towards 2019-novel Corona virus. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(COVID19-S4):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.COVID19-S4.2636 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (03) ◽  
pp. 399-406
Author(s):  
Nazish Waheed ◽  
Brekhna Jamil ◽  
Robina Usman ◽  
Humera Waqar

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge and attitude of undergraduate medical students toward research. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Setting: Private Medical Colleges of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Period: November 2018 to July 2019. Material & Methods: A total of 938 final year medical students participated in the study. A validated self administered questionnaire was used for the collection of data. The student’s perception was assessed through questionnaire based on 5-point Likert scale. For the assessment of knowledge MCQs were marked as 1 in case of correct answer and 0 in case of incorrect answer. Results: Out of 1300 students, 938 returned the questionnaire resulting in a 74% response rate. 481(51%) participants were male and 457(49%) were females. The participants had a mean knowledge score of 6.103 out of a total of 15 questions and mean attitude score of 76.29. Conclusion: This study concludes a low knowledge score coupled with a positive attitude of doing research. More attention must be placed on these parameters in the curriculum to improve student knowledge in health research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 52-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marwa Ramadan ◽  
Asmaa Eltaweel ◽  
Tamwe El Nakhal ◽  
Hanan Hemead ◽  
Abdelrahman Maraqa ◽  
...  

Background: The aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence of self-medication among undergraduate medical students in Alexandria Faculty of Medicine and recognize the patterns and the attitude of students towards intake. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical students attending Alexandria Faculty of Medicine from both national and international programs during the period of June 2013 until October 2013. A self-administrated, semi-constructed questionnaire was used to assess the practice of self-medication among 408 students who were randomly selected using a stratified random sample technique. Results: Self-medication was reported by 208 (52.7%) students, with no significant difference between males and females. The highest percentage of self-medication was reported among those who have completed six years of academic study and the lowest was reported among those who have completed two years of academic study. There was a statistically significant association between educational stage (preclinical and clinical) practice of self-medication. Most common medications involved were analgesic and anti-inflammatory followed by decongestants, antimicrobials and antihistaminic drugs. 309 (78.8%) students believed that self-medication is acceptable. Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that self-medication is practiced by more than half of undergraduate medical students in the Faculty of Medicine - Alexandria University. Acquiring medical knowledge seems to be associated with the practice of self-medication. Therefore, more attention should be paid to medical curricula to raise awareness and limit the hazardous effects of this phenomenon


Author(s):  
Nawar Sahib Khalil ◽  
Reem Ali Haddad ◽  
Israa Talib Hassan2 ◽  
Ruqaya Subhi Tawfeeq

Introduction: Self-medication is increasingly being a common practice worldwide more so amongst the medical students. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of self-medication among the medical students and to describe the self-reported practice and pattern of medication by undergraduate medical students at Al-Iraqia University in Baghdad city. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional survey. Out of 440 students enrolled, 400 (>90%) responded. The data was collected using self-administrated pretested questionnaire and then analyzed using SPSS version 18.0. Results: During the last one year preceding the study, 85% of respondents using self-medication mostly among single students (98.2%), aged 20+ years old (56.5%), in fourth academic level (27.1%), living with their families (73.2%) and of non-sufficient income (54.7%). The main indication for seeking self-medication include headache as reported by 83.8% followed by cold and cough and fever 80.3% and pain elsewhere in body (70%). Drugs commonly used for self-medication included analgesics 89.4% and anti-pyretic 67.9%. Minor illness was the most common reason for self-medication (80.6%). 56.8% and 45% of respondents follow pharmacist and textbooks respectively as a source of information in practicing self-medication. Most of respondents practiced self-medication for themselves (57.9%) and for both; themselves and their family members (45%). Some level of awareness was reported among non-practiced self-medication students; 60% of them were afraid from risk of adverse reaction of drugs. Conclusion: Self-medication is broadly practiced among medical students in this College. Therefore, there is need to improve the medical educational program to raise the awareness level regarding the advantage and disadvantages of self-medication to ensure safe usage of drugs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-70
Author(s):  
Ankita Singh ◽  
Dhabal Bahadur Dhami ◽  
Ritesh Singh ◽  
Gaurav Jung Shah

Introduction: Self-medication forms an essential part of the self-care. Since medical students are being exposed to the knowledge of diseases and drugs, would assume a special significance to assess the self-medication practice among them. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted from March to April 2018 in 200 preclinical medical students of Nepalgunj Medical College (NGMC), Chisapani. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection and the students who took self-medication within last two months were included. Result: Out of 200 students, 123 (61.5%) were found practicing self-medication. Majority of students (47.97%) were taking Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) for fever (18.70%), headache (17.89%) and abdominal pain (13.01%). 21.14% of students were consuming paracetamol for these health ailments. 44.72% of students reported that they were practicing self-medication because of the mild nature of illness. Conclusion: Students are widely practicing self-medication, particularly NSAIDs group of drugs. In this situation, awareness about the pros and cons of self-medication should be must in the medical students.


1970 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-61
Author(s):  
Asif Noor ◽  
Ejaz Hussain Sahu ◽  
Muhammad Umer Abdullah ◽  
Aftab Yousaf

Background: Self-medication can be defined as "the drugs which are used to treat self-diagnosed disorders or indications, or the irregular or continued use of a prescribed drug for persistent or recurrent disease or symptoms." Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was performed to understand the perceptions and practices about self-medication among students admitted to one of medical colleges in Pakistan located in Multan. A structured Questionnaire was distributed to the consenting students. The data were coded, entered and analyzed by using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0. Out of 95 medical students 47.7% (n=45) were males and 52.3% (n=55) were females. Results: Among participants, self-medication was found in 98% (n=93) cases. Among self-medication respondents, more than 50% treated themselves only once while 32% twice, 12% thrice and only 2.1 % more than thrice. Self-medication was equally common in 3rd year, fourth year and final year medical students. While 24.2% of respondents perceived as a good practice, 42.1% took it as an acceptable practice while33.7% were of opinion that it was a totally unacceptable practice. The study revealed different reasons for self-medication and found that the most common reason was non-seriousness of disease i.e 43.2%, followed by convenience / time factor 42.1%, Cost saving 13.7% and least one was the non-availability of physician 1.1% . Regarding the use of drugs, antibiotics were the most common class used as self-medication 27.4%, followed by anti allergics 23.2%, vitamins 17.9%, pain killers 16.8% and antacids in 14.7 % cases. Conclusion: The study results indicate that Self-medication was common among medical students from clinical classes and most of students treated themselves at least once.


Author(s):  
Kusum Kumari ◽  
Manju Gari ◽  
Mary Sunita Toppo ◽  
Ira Anupama Soreng ◽  
Priyanki .

Background: Self-medication is a widely practiced trend in the general Indian population. Among the medical students, self- medication is popular because of awareness about the disease and their treatment. Analgesics are one of the most common drugs used for self-medication. Very few studies are available in Jharkhand regarding this subject. So, the present study aims to delve into the pattern of self-medication practices of analgesics among the 1st and 3rd semester medical students of RIMS, Ranchi, Jharkhand.Methods: A questionnaire based cross sectional study was done in RIMS, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India in March-April 2019 among the undergraduate medical students. The results were expressed as percentage and frequency.Results: Out of total 150 and 142 students in the 1st and 3rd semester respectively, 140 and 130 students practiced self- medication.  Advice from seniors was the biggest source of information in both the groups followed by internet and books. Paracetamol was the most common drug (75%; 60%) and headache was the most common indication (55%; 68%). Quick relief of symptoms was the most common reason for self-medication in both the groups (44%; 48%).Conclusions: In both the groups, the students continued the drug even after experiencing side effects (77%; 60%). Most students were of the view that such practice is not acceptable at all times (75%; 72%).


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