Prevalence and pattern of self-medication among medical students of a private medical college in Kerala

Introduction: Self-medication is defined as medication taken on one's own initiative or on the advice of pharmacist or any other lay person. It is one of the leading cause for the ever threatening drug resistance for various drugs. Medical students are future physicians and prescribers. It is important to know how they use medicines and what the pattern is. Hence, assessing their practice on this sensitive issue will help in planning interventions to prevent irrational use of medicines. Objective : To determine the prevalence and pattern of self-medication among medical students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done among the medical students of a private college in Central Kerala using a pre - tested semi-structured questionnaire which had questions regarding common drugs used for self-medication, ailments, reasons, source & also awareness about dose, course & side effects of the drug used. Results: Prevalence of self-medication was 95%. Commonly self-medicated drugs include antipyretics 253(78.06%) and analgesics 158(58.8%). Diseases which are commonly self-medicated are fever 273(84.4%) and aches & pain 184(56.4%). Majority of students were self-medicating due to mild nature of illness 236(72.9%). Common source of self-medicated drugs were pharmacy for 248(76.5%), family &friends for 137(42.2%). Conclusions: Prevalence of self-medication was found to be very high among medical students. Considering the fact that the respondents are future prescribers, correct, timely use of drugs need to be stressed. But they were using the drugs only for common ailments and not for serious diseases.