| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2023 | Volume
: 11
| Issue : 2 | Page : 133-137 |
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Self-medication practices among medical and dental undergraduate students: An institution-based cross-sectional study
Shashikala Eda, Somnath Motgi, Thakur Rohith Singh
Department of Pharmacology, Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Correspondence Address:
Shashikala Eda
Department of Pharmacology, Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, Telangana
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/mjhs.mjhs_38_22
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Background: The students, especially medical and dental undergraduates are more involved in the self-medication practice as they are empowered with good knowledge of drugs and diseases and have greater access to medicine. Recent studies have shown a greater prevalence of self-medication among medical and dental students.
Objective: The objective of this study is to study the prevalence and risk factors of self-medication practices among medical and dental undergraduate students.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 502, medical (252) and dental (250) students. A predesigned, pretested, and semistructured study questionnaire was used for the data collection of the present study. The students were contacted and they were given the self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was collected back once they finished it. The questionnaire did not include any identifying information of the students. All batch students were contacted.
Results: Majority (35.9%) were aged 20 years. About 58.2% were females. There were 50.2% of medical and 49.8% of dental students. Almost no one agreed to have any kind of addiction; 53.8% were doing physical activity of <1 h. The prevalence of self-medication among students was 73.7%. It was 74.8% among dental students compared to 72.6% among medical students. The most common drug used for self-medication was paracetamol (30.3%). Most commonly, the drugs were used only for 1 day (33.5%). The most common condition for which the self-medication drug was used was cold (19.9%). No variable studied in the present study was found to be associated with self-medication.
Conclusion: The prevalence of self-medication among medical and dental students was very high. However, the drugs used were not harmful and the frequency of use was limited. The practice of self-medication was similar in the two groups and it was not associated with any factors.
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