Study on self-medication practice among consumers in parts of East Bengaluru

Background: Self medication is defined as the use of medication by a patient on his own initiative or on the advice of a pharmacist or a lay person instead of seeking advice a medical practitioner. Objectives: To assess the self medication practices for allopathic drugs in East Bengaluru and also identify the association between self-medication practice and socio demographic characteristics in the study population. Methodology: A community based cross sectional study was conducted in East Bengaluru area over the period of 6 months using pre tested semi structured questionnaire. Result: The data on practice of self medication were collected from 427 study participants. A significant correlation was observed for younger age group, while a moderate correlation for education, economic status of the survey respondents. Fever, pain and cough (20.60%), pain (17.09%), and fever & pain (16.85%) were the most common illnesses where self-medication is being used. Pain killers (68.85%) and antipyretic drug (50.58%) were the most commonly used self medicating drugs. Telling the symptoms to pharmacist (89.69%) was the commonest method adopted to procure drugs by the users. The major reason for practicing self medication was lack of time to visit doctor (32.31). Conclusion : Self-medication is an important health issue in this area. Health education of the public and regulation of pharmacies may help in limiting the self-medication practices.