ABSTRACT

Self-medication has been public health issue and is discussed globally as it is developing fast, being convenient and affordable. Self-medication is defined as any person resorting to one or more drugs for their own treatment without the help of a doctor or healthcare personal. Hence, there is a dire need to create awareness regarding self-medication through survey. Therefore, this present short term EviGenCHIP (Evidence Generating Community Health Project) study was designed as a prospective questionnaire-based study which was conducted amongst 200 medical undergraduate students, through Google-form based questionnaires. Data were analyzed by using appropriate analytical tests like percentile. Among the total of 200 participants (n=200) who participated in this present research study, it was observed that 98% of students were aware of the effects of drugs on the body. Moreover, 95% of students were aware of the term xenobiotics. It was observed that for various conditions participants practice self medication out of which 64% were for fever and headache while for nausea and vomiting (54%), cough and cold (48%), diarrhoea (45%), acidity (29%), and only 5% for eye and ear problems. The commonly used drugs for various conditions were analgesics and antipyretics (70%), antacids (66%) gastrointestinal (53%) antihistaminic (33%), ointments for skin problems (15%) & for eye andear problems (11%). Thus, it can be concluded that the study investigated the medical undergraduate students of self medication which is frequently used for various conditions. A better understanding of what the student knows/belief about self medication and perception is observed. Keywords: Self-care, self-medication, World Health Organization (WHO), medical undergraduates, questionnaire-based study, OTC (over the counter) drugs
Publication date: 01/05/2024

https://ijbpas.com/pdf/2024/May/MS_IJBPAS_2024_8019.pdf

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https://doi.org/10.31032/IJBPAS/2024/13.5.8019