Evaluation of knowledge, attitude and behavior about rational use of medicines in second year medical students

Abstract

Background: To assess the knowledge about various issues concerned with rational use of medicines in second year medical students Methods: This was a survey-based, cross-sectional study in which a self developed, pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire was used. Respondents were 153 students of second year MBBS (beginning of third semester). They were explained about nature and purpose of study and necessary consent obtained. Questions were framed to obtain information about various issues concerned with use of medicines, common beliefs /misconceptions, purchase of medicines, sources of information about medicines etc. Results were expressed as counts and percentages. Results: Majority of respondents were aware about OTC (54%) and generic medicines (96.7%), importance of reading medicine label (58.8%), that medicines are not needed for every illness (86.2%), medicines manufactures by big multinational companies are not always better (67.9%). 75.8% respondents were not influenced by direct to consumer advertising for purchase of medicines and 69.9% opined that medicines obtained from government hospital are not of inferior quality. 83.6% of respondents opined that they never mixed treatment of more than one doctor at a time and 83% always purchased all medicines written in prescription. For 93.4% respondents’ doctors’ advice was the most important factor that influenced medicine purchase. Conclusion: Though majority of respondents were aware about most of the issues addressed in the questionnaire which seems to be a positive finding, those still unaware needs to be educated by adopting suitable interventions. [Int J Basic Clin Pharmacol 2013; 2(5.000): 617-621

A questionnaire based cross sectional study to assess the knowledge and perceptions regarding concept of rational use of medicines among second year medical students

“…Majority of the 68% of students were are aware that wide variation in costs of different brands of same drug is available in the market. Our study observations are similar in accordance with previous study done by Sontakke SD et al 12 It is very crucial that these concepts remain in students minds, it is possible only when all these issues are repeatedly reinforced upon them and they are made to realize the 5 Doctors can completely depend on information about drugs given by pharma industries.…”

“…The study questionnaire consisted of a pre-validated, semi-structured, open-ended and closed-ended items. The questionnaire was obtained from the similar previous study done by Sontakke SD et al 12 Slight modifications were done in our study as per the subject experts opinion. Questionnaire was designed to obtain information about various issues concerned with rational use of medicines.…”

Knowledge, Attitude, Awareness on Rational Use of Drugs Among the Para - Medical Students in a Tertiary Care Hospital - A Questionnaire Based Study

“…Ironically only 6% among them look fee the generic name of the drug. These findings are similar to the previous study conducted by smita.et al (7)(8) This is not an encouraging finding and needs to be corrected because using or prescribing medicines by generic names is an important measure in the rational use of drugs. A bunch of previous studies show that high incidence of drug prescribing errors and irrational usage of drugs is mainly due to inadequate pharmacology teaching (9)(10)(11)(12).…”

Study of knowledge, attitude, practice of rational use of medicines among interns at Mc Gann teaching district hospital, Shivamogga- a descriptive cross-sectional study

“…Some studies have reported improvement in the quality of health care following use of NLEM and standard treatment guidelines. [10][11][12] Hence, it is essential to adopt measures that will encourage their use. Various studies have revealed that prescribing medicines by brand name has become a routine practice.…”