Investigation of Self-Medication Practices of Medicines Among Biological Science Students of Dhaka University in Bangladesh

Abstract

Self-medication, as one element of self-care, is the selection and use of medicines by individuals to treat self recognized illnesses or symptoms. It is practiced significantly worldwide even though its type, extent and reasons for its practice may vary. Descriptive cross sectional study was conducted on 180 Bioscience students in University of Dhaka from April to June 2012. Pre-tested and validated questionnaires were employed as tools for data collection. Study populations were determined by using two stages stratified random sampling methods. Among the 165 respondents (students), 104(63.03%) were male students whereas 61(36.36%) were female students aged between 20-25(87.87%). Only 12.12% were aged below 20. Headache 70(42.42%) was the most frequently reported symptoms for taking self-medication followed by Fever 62(37.57%). Prior experience 93(56.36%) and In emergency use 84(50.91%) were the two major reasons pr for self-medication. The most common classes of drugs used in self-medication in the current study were analgesics, in particular, Paracetamol, which was reported by 92(51%) of the respondents followed by Antacids 32(17%). Self-decisions 109(66.06%) followed by relatives 34 (20.61%) were the two most frequently reported source of drug information for self-medication in this study. Out of 165 respondents, most of them 122(74%) agreed with the practice self-medication while only 43(26%) disagreed.