Prevalence of self-medication practices and its associated factors in Urban Puducherry, India

Abstract

Background and Objectives:Self medication is an important concern for health authorities at global level. This study was aimed to find the prevalence of self medication for allopathic drugs and associated factors among households of urban community. This study was also aimed at assessing the attitude of respondents who had experienced self-medication.Materials and Methods:This cross-sectional study was done in field practice area attached to a medical institution in urban Puducherry. A total of 352 subjects from 124 households were selected by random sampling. With pretested interview schedule, information regarding self-medication use in the past three months and associated sociodemographic factors, purpose, source of drug procurement, attitude toward self-medication use were collected.Results:Prevalence of self-medication was found to be 11.9%. Males, age >40 years and involving in moderate level activity of occupation, were found to be significantly associated with higher self-medication usage (P < 0.05). Fever (31%), headache (19%), and abdominal pain (16.7%) are most common illnesses where self-medication is being used. Telling the symptoms to pharmacist (38.1%) was the commonest method adopted to procure drugs by the users. Majority of the self-medication users expressed that self-medication is harmless (66.6%) and they are going to use (90%) and advice others also (73.8%) to use self-medication drugs.Conclusion:Self-medication is an important health issue in this area. Health education of the public and regulation of pharmacies may help in limiting the self-medication practices.

Self-medication practice among Yemeni patients in Ibb city: a survey study exploring patients’ perceptives

“…This result is in agreement with the previous results reported which confirmed that pharmacies and previous prescriptions are the main sources of information. [2,5,13,15,18] Regarding the family members and friends as the main source of medical information, the findings of this research contradict with the previous studies considering them as a main source of medical information. [1,8,16,24] Furthermore, the findings of this research indicate that 89.9% of the participants believe that private pharmacies are the main source for getting drugs (medications) followed by the left over prescription medication (23%) are in agreement with the previous studies.…”

“…The results of this study contradict with the results reported by other studies in literature. For instance, the main cause was that the "illness is minor" 80.2%, [15] this result is in agreement with the previously reported, [5,18] but the knowledge about the drug and the higher cost as the causes of self-medication practice. [5] The higher cost of treatment (economic issue) also was reported.…”

“…The study reported that the fever (31%), headache (19%), and abdominal pain (16.7%) were the most common illnesses resulted from the use of self-medication drugs. [18] Other common diseases such as cold, cough, headache, pain and fever were treated by the (Paracetamol) drugs. [1,2,8,13,16] On the other hand, treating cold and respiratory problems is through using the most common antibiotic drug (Amaxicillin).…”

“…[6,17,19] The most common source of the information was from pharmacists as has been reported by. [13,15,18] Self-decision was also considered as one of the most sources of medication information. [1,15,16] The studies illustrated that the most common sources of information were pharmacies and other health care providers.…”

“…[20] Most of the previous studies didn't evaluate the knowledge of participants regarding the risks of the self-medication, but the study reported that 66% of participants believed that self-medications is harmless. [18] Other studies in other countries evaluated self-medication in terms of the causes and the types of drugs mostly used, but the researcher in this study added some variables like the source of medication (drugs). Moreover, the researcher in this study assessed the risks of self-medication (awareness of patients regarding the risk of self-medication).…”