A Survey on Self Medication among the General Population in Pondicherry

Although pharmaceuticals have made a main influence to health, a large proportion of the world’s population today are facing problems when consuming and accessing medicines. Healthcare professionals are usually sharing their health decisions with their patients in terms of the availability of medicines and its accessibility. Accordingly, patients are being more involved in taking actions either with or without direct healthcare professional guidance, seeking for other facilities to obtain medicines or tend to self-care. Self medication is becoming common in our routine life. This is actually an unhealthy and risky practices. Present study was done to determine the survey on self medication among the general population. A cross sectional study was conducted among the general population of pondicherry.111 persons took part in this cross sectional study. Data is analysed using suitable statistical methods. Among 111 persons participated in the study the most common reason to take self medication is in case of minor illness and the sources of information about the drug is from the previous prescription and the drugs they get from medical shop. Only 28.4 % visits the qualified medical practioner in case of illness and mostly they have taken medicines for cough, cold, sore throat and followed by that they have taken medications for headache. Out of 111 persons most of them have taken is analgesics followed by allergy medications. The general population has taken the self medication which is a wrong practice.

Self-Medication Practices: A Threatening Challenge

Background and Objectives: Self-Medication is a growing concern for the health authorities especially in Urban population. This research was aimed to find the various determinants of Self-Medication and to assess the influence of Pharmacists, Perception about doctors, Self- Knowledge gaining attitude of the patients on Self-Medication. Methods: This study was conducted in Nagpur city with a random sample constituting house wives, students, professionals and Businessman. The sample size was 71. Descriptive analyses, correlation analyses and multiple regressions were performed using SPSS Version 21.0. Results: The results indicated that 80% of the housewives take the medicines on the basis of previous prescription, word of mouth or on the suggestion of the pharmacist. It was alarming to find that 76% of the students took the medicines on the basis of web search. Fever (39%), headache (33%) & Abdominal pain (23%) are the prominent reasons for Self-Medication. There was a positive correlation between Advice of Pharmacist, Self-knowledge collection attitude of the patient with the Self-Medication behavior. NSAID’s, anti-allergen and antibiotics are the most frequently used drugs. Conclusion: Self-medication is an important health issue prevalent in India. Over the counter (OTC) and Old prescriptions available with the patients leads to rise in Self-Medication. There should be a strict regulatory control on procurement of drugs from the pharmacist.

Trends of Self-Medication Amongst the Patients Visiting the Out-Patient Department of Combined Military Hospital, Lahore

Objective: The purpose of our study was to assess the trends of self-medication practices and to determine the prevalence, characteristics, related factors, and effects of self-medication among the patients conducted. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was on patients of Combined Military Hospital Lahore on a sample size of 365. The data was collected and entered in a predesigned questionnaire about self-medication later analyzed using SPSS version 17.0. Results: The prevalence of self-medication was 95.3% and effectiveness was 87.7%. The common reasons for self-medication were prior knowledge of usefulness of remedy (63.3%), non-affordability of consultant charges (18.4%), and lack of time (21.9%). Frequently used medicines included antibiotics (30.1%), analgesics (69.6%), antipyretics (51.0%), and antihistamines (23.6%). Respondents claimed to receive information about these drugs from various sources including doctor (38.6%), previous prescription (31.8%), retailer seller (13.4%), family/friends (43.6%), media (7.9%) and other sources (1.6%). Conclusion: It had been concluded that there is a high prevalence of self-medication. There is a need to raise public awareness about the appropriate use in order to prevent potential hazards of self-medication. Key Words: trends, self-medication, out-patient department How to cite: Khan B.A.A, Muzahir F, Rauf S.A, Fatima S.R, Pervaiz A, Jamil S. Trends of self- medication amongst the patients visiting the out-patient department of Combined Military Hospital, Lahore. Esculapio.2021. 30-33

Trends of Self-Medication Amongst the Patients Visiting the Out-Patient Department of Combined Military Hospital, Lahore

Objective: The purpose of our study was to assess the trends of self-medication practices and to determine the prevalence, characteristics, related factors, and effects of self-medication among the patients conducted. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was on patients of Combined Military Hospital Lahore on a sample size of 365. The data was collected and entered in a predesigned questionnaire about self-medication later analyzed using SPSS version 17.0. Results: The prevalence of self-medication was 95.3% and effectiveness was 87.7%. The common reasons for self-medication were prior knowledge of usefulness of remedy (63.3%), non-affordability of consultant charges (18.4%), and lack of time (21.9%). Frequently used medicines included antibiotics (30.1%), analgesics (69.6%), antipyretics (51.0%), and antihistamines (23.6%). Respondents claimed to receive information about these drugs from various sources including doctor (38.6%), previous prescription (31.8%), retailer seller (13.4%), family/friends (43.6%), media (7.9%) and other sources (1.6%). Conclusion: It had been concluded that there is a high prevalence of self-medication. There is a need to raise public awareness about the appropriate use in order to prevent potential hazards of self-medication. Key Words: trends, self-medication, out-patient department How to cite: Khan B.A.A, Muzahir F, Rauf S.A, Fatima S.R, Pervaiz A, Jamil S. Trends of self- medication amongst the patients visiting the out-patient department of Combined Military Hospital, Lahore. Esculapio.2021. 30-33

Knowledge, attitude and practice of self medication among the staff-members of Charotar University of Science and Technology

Self-medication raises its occurrence in many situations in our everyday lives, which is an inappropriate and harmful practice. A research framework was conducted to evaluate the awareness, attitude and practice of self-medication among the CHARUSAT University staff members. Among the staff members, a pre-validated questionnaire was circulated. Using Microsoft Excel, information was gathered and evaluated and the results were represented as numbers and percentages. A total of 136 staff-members voluntarily took part in the study. We found that source of information of the drugs used for self-medication were “previous prescription (77.7%)” and the source of drugs was “medical store (78.8%)”. Only (34.3%) staff-members accepted the fact that they always visited a qualified practitioner whenever they got sick. Most of the staff-members took self-medication for headache (73.5%) followed by cough, cold, sore throat (73.5%) and fever (56.6%). Out of total 136 staff-members, most of them took Analgesics (61.8%) as self-medication followed by lozenges (66.2%). For almost 66.9 % of university staff members, self-medication was common. They provided a reason that “no need to visit a doctor for minor illnesses”. 73.5 % of the population has taken cough and cold preparations as self-medication.

Galaxy bias and σ8 from counts in cells from the SDSS main sample

ABSTRACT The counts-in-cells (CIC) galaxy probability distribution depends on both the dark matter clustering amplitude σ8 and the galaxy bias b. We present a theory for the CIC distribution based on a previous prescription of the underlying dark matter distribution and a linear volume transformation to redshift space. We show that, unlike the power spectrum, the CIC distribution breaks the degeneracy between σ8 and b on scales large enough that both bias and redshift distortions are still linear; thus, we obtain a simultaneous fit for both parameters. We first validate the technique on the Millennium Simulation and then apply it to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey main galaxy sample. We find σ8 = 0.92 ± .08 and $b = 1.39^{+.11}_{-.09}$ consistent with previous complementary results from redshift distortions and from Planck.

KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE, AND PRACTICES OF SELF-MEDICATION AMONG THE STUDENTS OF PRIVATE UNIVERSITY

Objectives: Self-medication is becoming very common in our routine life which is an unhealthy and risky practice in a few instances. The present study was carried out to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practice of self-medication among students of Charotar University of Science and Technology (CHARUSAT). Methods: A pre-validated questionnaire was prepared and distributed among the students. Data was collected and analyzed using Microsoft Excel and the results expressed as counts and percentages. Results: A total of 431 students participated voluntarily in the study. The most common reason for taking self-medication was found in 70% of total students. We found that the source of information of the drugs used for self-medication was “previous prescription (57%)” and source of drugs was “medical store (66%).” Only (46%) students accepted the fact that they always visited a qualified practitioner whenever they felt ill. Most of the students took self-medication for headache (82%) followed by cough, cold, and sore throat (62%) and fever (57%). Of total 431 students, most of the students took analgesics (78%) as self-medication followed by lozenges (50%). Conclusion: Self-medication was common in nearly 70% of university students. They provided the reason that “no needs to visit the doctor for minor illness.” Cough and cold preparations were taken by 82% population as self-medication.

KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE, AND BEHAVIORS TOWARD ANTIBIOTICS OF NON-MEDICAL STUDENTS JOUF UNIVERSITY, SAUDI ARABIA

Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate the knowledge and attitude of non-medical students, Jouf University toward antibiotic.Methods: Data were collected from male and female students using a self-prepared questionnaire then tabulated and analyzed using SPSS program.Results: This study included 1035 students; 573 (55.3%) male and 462 (44.6%) female, aged (21.5±2.2) years. About 533 (51.5%) used antibiotic during the year 2015. 705 (68.12%) of the student display wrong answer regarding the uses of the antibiotic. 53.5% depending on the previous prescription on self-medicated antibiotic (SAM), followed by their experience (14.5%) and pharmacy advice (11.3%). 45.9% did not have any idea about the antibiotic name they used. Majority of the students (62.6%) stop antibiotic once improvement is achieved, whereas (28.1%) complete the course till the end of the last dose. 75.4% of the studied populations saving at least one antibiotic at home while 62.7% sharing antibiotic with others. 35.3% of the studied population did not experienced antibiotic-related side effects, while 19.3% experience nausea. About 57.6% believed that broad spectrum is better than narrow-spectrum antibiotic, 70.4% deny that higher doses enhance recovery, (57.3%) believes that low dose decrease side effect. 51.9% depend on their good medical knowledge for SMA, while 20.3% was to save time, 18.8% dependent on pharmacy expert where only 9% was to save money cost.Conclusion: The majority of the sample had a fair level of knowledge in relation to antibiotics. Initiation of national program and campaigns toward antibiotic uses to raise the public awareness about the hazardous of antibiotic misuse/abuse is essential to decrease the gap between antibiotic use and attitude.

Self medication among medical and dental students in tertiary care teaching hospital of Udaipur, India

Background: Self‐medication involves acquiring and consuming medication without the advice of a physician and also resubmitting old prescriptions to purchase medicines. Inappropriate self‐medication causes increase cost of therapy and incidence of adverse drug reactions. Self-medication was significantly higher among undergraduate medical and paramedical students in India. Objective of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of self-medication and perception towards self-medication among the undergraduate medical and dental students.Methods: A pre-designed questionnaire collected the information pertaining to demographic details like age, gender, course, reason, pattern, indications, drugs used for self‐medication. It also included questions concerning their attitude, perception and safety regarding self-medication.Results: The prevalence of self - medication was 76.27%. Larger numbers of females were self-medicating (55.56%). The majority of the students’ self-medicated because of other advice (92.59%), there was statistically significant difference between the male and female medical students to use a previous prescription for the same illness. A total of 136 (76.83%) of the participants opined that self-medication was a part of self-care. Statistically significant differences between male and female students had been observed in safety variables like, “know side effects about your drug”, “increasing drug dose can be dangerous” and “in case of side effects physicians’ help must be sought”. Cold and Cough was the most common (60%) indication for self-medication.Conclusions: The prevalence of self-medication was higher among females. The majority of the students’ self-medicated because of other advice. The stringent policies should be required for medicines which can prevent the increasing trend of self-medicating.