Prevalence of Self Medication among youth

2013-14

Dept.Of Community Medicine,PIMS & RC

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PREVALENCE OF SELFMEDICATION AMONG YOUTH

DONE BY

Sehdiya Hamza

Smrithy. V

Siddharth.S

Sarath.A

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Our project is the result of an effective teamwork,which we did with atmost sincerity.We thank all the people who supported usfor the completion of this project work.

We are grateful to all those participants who contributed to ourdata collection since it was a questionnaire-based study.

We sincerely thank Dr.Indira Devi,HOD,Dept.Of Community Medicine,Pushpagiri Institute Of Medical Sciences & RC for heresincere support all along our project work.

We are grateful to each and everyone among the faculty of Dept.Of Community Medicine who guided us at right time,providing us with necessary aids.

Above all,we thank Lord Almighty for helping us in tough times during the completion of this project work.

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INTRODUCTION Definition: Self-medication is the use of drugs with therapeutic intent but without professional advice or prescription. It is the use of non-prescription medicines by people on their own initiative .

Perception of illness & incessant advertising lead to increased prevalence of self-medication.

About 2.9-3.7% causes of death in hospitals is as a result of drug-drug interactions.

Drug use is influenced by socio-demographic characteristics of drug consumers such as gender , morbidity, age, attitude about life and health, stress and social rules.It has nothing to do with ethnicity.

However there is substantial variation in the prevalence rate of self medication may be due to inherent differences in cultural and socio-economic factors, disparities in health care

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systems such as reimbursement policies, access to health care and drug dispensing policies.

Medication practices remain issues of intense debate in academic discourse.

REVIEW OF LITERATUREThe prevalence of self-medication among youth with antibiotics is common in some countries like Greece. Such use is cited as a potential risk factor in the incidence of certain antibiotic resistant bacterial infections in places like Nigeria

In a questionnaire designed to evaluate self-medication rates among the population of Khartoum,Sudan 48.1% of respondents reported self-medicating with antibiotics within past 30days,43.4% reported self –medicating with antimalarials,and 17.5% reported self-medicating with both.

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Furthermore,according to associated study,data indicates that self-medication “varies significantly with a number of socio-economic characteristics” and “the main reason that was indicated for self-medication was financial constraints”

In a survey of West Bengal,57% among the youth (age criteria :18-30) reported self-medicating.

The type of drugs most commonly used

Antibiotics (31%)

Analgesics (23%)

Antipyretics (18%)

Antacids (8%)

Cough suppressants (8%)

Multivitamins (6%)

Antihelminthics (4%)

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ANTIMALARIALS

MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY

The study was conducted among the public between the age group 18-35 through preformed questionnaires. The questionnaire was in two parts.

The first part contained questions on demographic information of the respondents suchas age, gender, class level in the university,etc.

The second part contained questions on core issues which dwelt on socio-economic variables such as health seeking behavior, names and sources of drugs used for self-medication, typeof ailment treated through self-medication,factors influencing self medication,practices and strategies that may help reduce self-medication practices among the respondents.

The questionnaire, which consisted of close- and open-ended questions were pre-tested for reliability and validity .

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The pre-tested questionnaire were used to effect minor corrections and modifications where necessary for easy understanding and filling by respondents.

QUESTIONNAIREPrevalence of self- medication in a population

Name: Age:Address:Sex: M/ F Village/ town:Occupation:Socioeconomic status: Distance from nearest health post/ medical store:

1) Have you ever taken medicines? Yes/No

2)Have you ever treated yourself (self-medicated) with medicines? Yes/No

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3)How many times did you treat yourself with medicines in the past one year?What was (were) your reason(s) of self-medication with medicines? (check more than one if applicable)Cost saving/ Convenience/Lack of trust in prescribing doctor/ Others (specify)

4)For which of the following complaint(s) did you use medicines? (check more than one if applicable)Runny nose /Nasal congestion/ Cough/ Sore throat/ Fever/ Aches and pains/ Vomiting/ Diarrhea/Skin woundsOthers (specify)

5)Your selection of medicines were based on… (check more than one if applicable)Recommendation by community pharmacists/ Opinion of family members/Opinion of friends/ My own experience/ Recommendation by net citizens/ Previous doctor’s prescription/The advertisement

6)What did you consider when selecting medicines? (check more than one if applicable)Type / Brand /Price of medicinesIndications for useAdverse reactionsOthers (specify)

7) Where did you usually obtain drugs from for self-medication? (check more than one if applicable)Community pharmacies/ TCM practitioners/ Leftover from previous prescription /Online shopping/E-pharmaciesOthers (specify):

8) Did you ever check the instructions come with the package insert of medicines for self-treatment?

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Yes, always/Yes, sometimes/Never

If Never, please go to Question 10 9) How much did you understand the instructions? Fully understood/Partly understood (percentage: ) %/Did not understand at all

10) How did you know the dosage of medicines? (check more than one if applicable) By checking the package insert/By consulting a doctor By consulting a pharmacist / By consulting family members/friends From the newspapers, magazines, books, or TV programs From the Internet From my previous experience By guessing the dosage by myself

11) Did you ever change the dosage of medicines deliberately during the course of self-treatment? Yes, always/ Yes, sometimes/Never

If Never, please go to Question 13 12) Why did you change the dosage of medicines during the course of self-treatment? (check more than one if applicable)Improving conditions/ Worsening conditions/ To reduce adverse reactions/ Drug insufficient for complete treatment/Others (specify)

13) Did you ever switch medicines during the course of self-treatment? Yes, always/ Yes, sometimes/ Never

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If Never, please go to Question 15 14) Why did you switch medicines during the course of self-treatment? (check more than one if applicable)The former medicines did not work / ran out / The latter one was cheaper / To reduce adverse reactions/ Others (specify)

15) How many different medicines did you take maximally during a single illness? 16) Are you concerned that you might have taken counterfeit medicines? Yes, very much / Yes, somewhat

17 Have you ever found out that you had taken the same medicine with different names at the same time?Yes/No

18) When did you normally stop taking medicines? (check more than one ifapplicable)After a few days regardless of the outcome / After symptoms disappeared /A few days after the recovery/ After medicines ran out / At the completion of the course/ After consulting a doctor/pharmacist/Others (specify):

19) Have you ever had any adverse reaction when you took medicines for self-medication? Yes (specify) /No

If NO, please go to Question 21 20) What did you do for the adverse reactions? (check more than one if applicable)Stopped taking / Switched to another medicine /

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Consulted pharmacy staff / Consulted a doctor/ Consulted family members or friends / NothingOthers (specify):

21) Please write down the names of medicines you have ever taken for SELF-MEDICATION:.................................................

22) What do you think about self-medication with medicines for self health care? Good / Acceptable/ Not acceptable

RESULTS

RESULTS-DEMOGRAPHY

N 10.5

Y 89.5

TOTAL NO. OF RESPONDENTS=95

After the analysis ,it was found that 89.5% of individuals took self medication out of which 80% were town residents.Most of them (26.3%) took self medication only once in the past three months.

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RESULTS-REASONS FOR SELF-MEDICATION

QUESTION %

A) COST SAVING 9.5

B)CONVENIENCE 45.3

C)LACK OF TRUST IN DOCTOR 2.1

D)OTHERS 11.6

5 options were presented to the participants and were asked to rate them

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Cost saving Convenience Lack of trust in do...

Others0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50REASONS FOR SELF MEDICATION-%

%

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RESULTS-SYMPTOMS & SIGNS THAT ARE FREQUENTLY SELF- MEDICATED

Symptoms Percentage (%)

Runny nose 14.9

Nasal congestion 10.6

Cough 19.2

Sore throat 11.8

Fever 56.1

Aches and Pain 20.3

Vomiting 3.3

Diarrhoea 1.1

Others 2.2

10 common problems are presented to the participants.About 56% took medicines for fever.

A pie-chart depicting the following data is given in the next page

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SELF MEDICATION-% SHOWING SIGNS & SYMPTOMS

Runny nose Nasal congestion

Cough Sore throatFever Aches & PainVomiting DiarrhoeaOthers

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CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF MEDICINES

About 25% of the population considered the opinion of their family members while selectingmedicines

23.2% -on previous doctor’s prescription

Only 1.1% took medicines based on advertisementAround 31.7% checked for the indications for use before taking medicines.Some considered thepopularity and potency of medicines

DOSAGE OF MEDICINES

36.9% decided the dosage of medicines by checking the package insert&some (1.1%) found out from internet

37.9% switched the medicines during treatment.

Out of this,18.9% provided the reason as ‘ former medicine did not work’

ADVERSE REACTIONS

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36.9% decided the dosage of medicines by checking the package insert&some (1.1%) found out from internet

37.9% switched the medicines during treatment.

Out of this,18.9% provided the reason as ‘ former medicine did not work’

DISCUSSION From the analysis, we found out that most of them treated them with antipyretics like DOLO,antacids & drugs like Brufen,Asthalin,Cetrizine

Self-medication can be defined as obtaining & consuming drugs without advice of a physician either for diagnosis,prescription or surveillance of treatment.

26.3% of the respondents had taken some form of self-medication during the preceding three months

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Paracetamol was the most commonly used class of drugs among the respondents.

Factors influencing self-treatment include patient satisfaction with the health-care provider,quality & cost of the drugs, educational level,socioeconomic factors

Interactions between prescribed drugs and drugstaken for self-medication is an important risk factor of which health care providers must be aware of.

The greater prevalence of self-medication amongyounger generation may be due to better education level

Due to the skewed sex distribution of our sample, and the effect of recall bias and otherconfounding variables,the results may not be truly representative of the population

CONCLUSION

Study revealed that prevalence of self-medication is very high (85%) among youth.

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42.1% considered self-medication as good & acceptable while 37.6% considered it as unacceptable.

Since some of the drugs used for self-medication were obtained from unapproved sources,there is need for health care professionals to enlighten consumers through public education on the problems that may arise from inappropriate medicine use .

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REFERENCES1. Jamison AJ, Kielgast PJ, Hoek AJM, Reinstein JA.

Responsible Self- Medication. Joint Statement

by the International Pharmaceutical Federation

and World Self-Medication Industry. 1999; p16.

2. Afolabi AO. Factors influencing the pattern of selfedication

in an adult Nigerian population. AnnAfr Med 2000; 7(3)

3. World Health Organization. Global Strategy for

Containment of Antimicrobal Resistance:

World Health Organization. Communicable

Diseases Surveillance and Response

(CRS).WHO/CDS/CRS/DRS/2001.2.2001.

4. Fadara JO, Tamuno I. Antibiotic Self-medication

among university medical undergraduates in

Northern Nigeria. J. Pub Health Epidemiol.

2011; 3(5): 217-220.

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