Self-medication practice and associated factors among non-health professional students of university of Gondar, North West Ethiopia, 2017

Abstract

Introduction: The misuse of drugs among students has become a serious problem. In economically deprived countries most episodes of illness are treated by self medication. Major problems related to self medication are: wastage of resources, increased resistance of Pathogens, and generally entails serious health hazards such as adverse reaction and prolonged suffering. Objective: To assess the prevalence and associated factors of self medication practice among non health professional students of university of Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods: Institutional based cross sectional study was carried out on 607 non health professional students of university of Gondar; Stratified systematic random sampling technique was employed. A structured and pretested self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data, the collected data were entered using Epi-info version 3.5.3 and SPSS version 20 were used for data entry and analysis respectively. Results: A total of 607 students were participated giving a response rate of 98.02%. From the respondents 226(38%) practiced self medication. The common perceived illnesses reported were headache/Fever 127(56.19%), abdominal pain 59(26.10%) and respiratory tract infections 35(15.48%). Males were two times more likely to practice self medication (AOR: 2.00, 95% CI: 1.41-2.86) than females. Conclusion: The prevalence of self medication among non health professional students is high. In the bivariate and multivariate logistic analysis males were two times more likely practiced self medication than females, and being students from college of Business and economics are 61.5% less likely to practiced self medication than Technology students.

Perceived Self-medication Practices and Associated Factors among Undergraduates in a Non-State University

“…Accordingly, a study done by Helal & Abou-ElWafa (2017) has reported that believing consultation for mild illnesses is unnecessary (73.9%) and knowledge with prior use of SM (71.4%) were the most common reasons that led the participants to use SMP. Another study done in Ethiopia (Mekonnen, Zelalem & Tezera, 2018) also has presented with similar results by having most participants who have engaged in SMP due to the mildness of the illness (34.1%), and due to having prior good experience of SM (24.8%). The overall SMP of the study sample were further categorized into two levels as, 'high levels of SMP' and 'low levels of SMP' based on having four or more of the above SMP and having less than four of the above SMP, respectively.…”

Assessment of Self-medication Practices among Nonteaching Faculty in a Private Dental College – A Cross-sectional Study

“…have shown that around 40% of the participants followed the prescription given by physicians during their previous disease exposure during self-medication. [ 4 5 ] A study by Niwandinda et al . also showed that 55.8% of the participants relied on pharmacists for information on self-medication.…”

Self-Medication Prevalence and Factors Associated with Knowledge and Attitude Towards Self-Medication Among Undergraduate Health Science Students at GAMBY Medical and Business College, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

“…Patient Preference and Adherence 2022:16 3168 mildness of the illness, similarity of disease conditions with previous symptoms and incapability to afford health care costs were also reported as the major reasons for SM practice in other similar studies. 75,76 Conversely, saving time and money are the least common reasons for health science students in Eritrea where previous experience and perceived sufficient knowledge towards SM were the prior reasons. 39 However, self-treating perceived illnesses based on past experiences or with perceived knowledge without accurate diagnosis could lead to misdiagnosis, missed therapeutics, and subsequent unwanted health problems.…”