Introduction: Self-medication among adolescents has become a serious global problem that plays an important role in irrational use of medication and tends to increase with the age of adolescents. Limited research has been done in Nepal regarding antibiotic knowledge among non-medical students. Hence, this study aims to assess the knowledge of higher secondary non-science students regarding antibiotic use, resistance and its consequences. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was done during antibiotic awareness week 2017 among 471 grade 11 and 12 non-science students of private schools in Kathmandu. Convenience sampling technique was used. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaires. Descriptive statistics was utilised to find out the knowledge level of the students. Results: The mean age of the students 245 (52%) male, 226 (48%) female) was 17.19 years and 335 (71.1%) were from grade 12. Approximately all 462 (98.1%) the participants had inadequate knowledge regarding antibiotic and their knowledge mean score was 5.8±2.56. More than half 277 (58.8%) of the students had not heard about antibiotic resistance, among those who have heard 113 (24%) said that doctor and nurses were the source of information. Conclusions: Almost all of the participating students lacked adequate knowledge regarding antibiotic. Thus, it is imperative to create school and community based awareness programs by policy makers for adolescents to upgrade their knowledge on safe use of antibiotics as well as to prevent the consequences of antibiotic resistance during their adult life.
Introduction:In developing countries drug monitoring system is not efficient and patients can easily buy drugs without any prescription. The users believe those drugs to be all safe. There is more awareness regarding over-the-counter drugs in urban population. Objectives: To assess the awareness and practice of over-the-counter (OTC) drugs among young and adults in a selected Nepalese community. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among people of Basundhara, Kathmandu of age group 20-40 years. Non-probability convenience sampling was done to select 384 respondents.Structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The data was analysed in SPSS version 16.0 program. Results: The majority of the participants were in the age range of 31-40 years with the mean age of 30.16±5.28. Findings regarding the awareness revealed that 60.7% and 88.1% participants knew the correct meaning and precaution of over-the-counter drugs respectively, 32.8% obtained the information through friends, 55.2% told that easy accessibility was the reason for taking OTC drugs. Drugs using without prescription were 92.4%, 80.2% reuse the previous prescription when the illness was similar, 75.3% suggested others to take over the counter drugs and 46.1% used the medicine even if its color and odor was unusual. Conclusion: In conclusion, people are aware about over-the-counter drugs. However, they are taking it rampantly and seem uncontrollable too. Thus, it is important to organise the continuing education for pharmacists and awareness program by policy makers to the community people about appropriate use of OTC medications to prevent the chances of drug misuse.
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