Evaluation of knowledge, attitude and practice of self medication among second year undergraduate students in Bastar Region: a questionnaire based study

Authors

  • Ratna Agrawal Department of Pharmacology, Late Baliram Kashyap Memorial Government Medical College, Dimrapal, Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh, India
  • Sanat Kumar Sharma Department of Pharmacology, Late Baliram Kashyap Memorial Government Medical College, Dimrapal, Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh, India
  • Mahendra Kumar Jaiswal Department of Pharmacology, Late Baliram Kashyap Memorial Government Medical College, Dimrapal, Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh, India
  • Raj Sharma Department of Pharmacology, Late Baliram Kashyap Memorial Government Medical College, Dimrapal, Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh, India
  • Syed Sajid Ali Department of Pharmacology, Late Baliram Kashyap Memorial Government Medical College, Dimrapal, Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20191124

Keywords:

KAP study, Questionnaire based, Self medication, Undergraduate students

Abstract

Background: Self medication is becoming very popular among medical students as they get exposed to knowledge about diseases and drugs, but which is very superficial in second year undergraduates, so the present study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of self medication among second year undergraduate students.

Methods: A questionnaire based study containing 12 questions was conducted in 175 second year undergraduate students after taking informed consent. Statistical analysis was done by using descriptive statistics by Graph Pad Prism version 6.01.

Results: Out of the 175 students, 155 (88.57%) students have taken self medication. The common reason for taking it was no need to visit the doctor for minor illness (64%), quick relief (48.57%) and time saving (34.29%). The common indications for taking self medication were fever (69.14%) and cough and cold (69.14%) followed by headache (64%). Although students rarely practised it due to risk associated like adverse effects 131 (74.86%) and lack of proper knowledge about drugs 118 (67.3%).

Conclusions: Self medication is highly prevalent among students, as most of the students get it from pharmacies, it is necessary to make strict guidelines for availability of such medicines over the counter and also there is need to educate the students about harmful consequences of self medication to make them responsible future doctors.

References

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Published

2019-03-23

How to Cite

Agrawal, R., Sharma, S. K., Jaiswal, M. K., Sharma, R., & Ali, S. S. (2019). Evaluation of knowledge, attitude and practice of self medication among second year undergraduate students in Bastar Region: a questionnaire based study. International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology, 8(4), 817–820. https://doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20191124

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Original Research Articles