Prevalence of Antibiotic Use and Factors Associated With Self-medication among University Students in Malaysia

Abstract

Self-medication with antibiotics is a global menace especially in developing countries due to lack of knowledge, poor access to the proper health care, and the weakness in the government’s role in monitoring and controlling the use of antibiotics. Thus, this study was carried out to identify the prevalence of antibiotic use during self-medication and the associated factors with self-medication among the students of Lincoln University College Malaysia. A quantitative research approach (i.e. cross-sectional study) was utilized. A simple sampling technique was employed to select 240 respondents among the students. The survey was used to collect data through the process of questionnaires’ validation. Descriptive statistics were used to examine all the research hypotheses. Though the prevalence of self-medication among the respondents as well as the misuse of antibiotics during self-medication was relatively low, there is, however, an urgent need to provide university students with health education programs to help them understand the proper use of the drugs and to increase their awareness about the risk of self-medication without supervision from qualified health providers.

Drivers of Irrational Antibiotic Use in Thailand: A Multilevel Analysis of Post-COVID-19 Trends

“…The risks associated with such practices include the development of antibiotic resistance, making infections more di cult to treat. Therefore, stricter regulations and public education about the dangers of self-medication are imperative [23,24]. Ensuring that antibiotics are available only through a prescription can reduce misuse.…”

Antibiotics self-medication practices among students in Universitas Prima Indonesia

“…11 However, a study in Malaysia reported a low rate of self-medicated antibiotic use among university students. 12 In Indonesia, a report published by Indonesian Central Statistic Agency showed that the prevalence of selfmedication reached 84.23% in Indonesian society. 13 There is no report on specific statistics of selfmedication among university students, but several previous studies reported varying prevalence of selfmedication in several universities in Indonesia.…”