PREVALENCE AND PATTERN OF SELF MEDICATION AMONG COMMUNITY DWELLERS

Dr. S. Z. Inamdar, *M. Afrah and M. Akhila

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The World Health Organization (WHO) states that self-medication is the practice where, individuals treat their illness and conditions with medicines that are approved and available without prescription, and which are safe and effective when used as directed. The problems due to self-medication are magnified when non-OTC drugs are also used for self-medication. Both general drug knowledge and access to prescription medications are potential factors for self-prescribing.[18] Materials and methods: A prospective observational study was conducted from December 2016 to March 2017 in the community areas of the city of Vijayapura to assess the knowledge, awareness and attitude of self-medication practices, with a sample size of 326. A door-to-door survey was carried out. The survey was carried out on an individual basis after taking an informed consent from the respective participant. To collect the data a structured questionnaire was prepared, after an extensive literature review. The questionnaire contains three categories of questions based on knowledge, attitude and practice. Results: The study sample size was 330, among which 186 were self-medicating participants whereas 144 were not self-medicating. Prevalence of self-medication in total was 56.4%, among which 47.5% were males and 61.4% were females. The age group that practiced self-medication the most and least were 21-35(43.5%) and >65 (2.7%) respectively. The knowledge about self-medication was highest among the age group of 21-35 with a mean knowledge of 6.8 and the attitude for the practice of self-medication was seen the highest among the age groups of 21-35 and 13-20 with a mean score of 6.3. The participants holding higher education (71%) practiced self-medication more often whereas the participants who were uneducated practiced self-medication the least (9.7%). Among 186 participants 5 of them reported of having an adverse drug reaction due to the medicines they consumed. Conclusion: The extent and depth of knowledge regarding self-medication in community needs to be assessed.

Keywords: WHO, Self-medication, over the counter, Questionnaire.