| Abstract |
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Background: Self medication is practice by a pharmacist or lay person to treat minor health problem or symptoms without prescription. The study was conducted to evaluate the medication pattern, behaviour, practice and attitude among undergraduate pharmacy students on self medication.
Methods: Descriptive cross sectional questionnaire based study was conducted among 175 pharmacy undergraduates in different institutions within Kathmandu valley, Nepal using prevalidated, five sectional and structured questionnaires.
Results: Non steroidal analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic drugs (n=235, 38.29%), were mostly preferred for the treatment of fever (n=94, 55.29%) and headaches (n=89, 52.35%), mainly paracetamol (n=144, 23.8%).Community pharmacies (n=136, 80.00%) and pharmacist recommendation (n=76, 44.70%) were main source of obtaining and selecting particular medicine and its dose (n=108, 63.54% ) while friends and family (n=75, 44.11%) remained main source of information. 128(75.29%)always checked up the information on package label or insert, mainly date of manufacturing (n=96, 56.47%) . 70(41.17%) respondents fully and 71(41.76%) of them partly understood the information. 161(94.30%)respondent always checked the expiry date before medicating. Significant proportion perceived it as unacceptable practice with main reasons of being unsafe (n=64, 37.64%) and potential adverse reaction (n=21, 12.35%).52(30.58%) of them faced adverse reactions or side effects. Allopathic system (n=114, 67.05%) was preferable medication system for self medication.
Conclusion: Most common drugs were NSAIDs, primly paracetamol, cough and cold reliever and GI infection ailments. Students and their profession interrelationship were predominant shaping their attitude and behaviour on self medication. |
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