Self-medication practices pattern among medical students, University of Tripoli- Libya, 2019

Abstract

Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the magnitude of self-medication and to describe the pattern of self-medication practices among medical students. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving a random sample of medical students at University of Tripoli. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire containing socio-demographic characters, and questions about the patterns of self-medication practices. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 19. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used, where suitable, to describe data and to find associations between dependent and independent variables. Results: A total of 423 medical students were participated in the study, two-thirds of respondents were females and the mean age was 23.3 ± 2.7 years; 262 (61.9%) were practicing self-medication and 53 (20.2%) of them had a chronic disease. Females showed a greater preference than males for using pharmaceutical products as opposed to herbs (P=0.001). Sex, age and academic level were significantly associated with the use of self-medication (P=0.026, P= 0.006 and P= 0.026), respectively. The common symptoms that motivated the participants to self-medicate were headache and body pain (67.9%), fever (29.4%) and cough (27.9%). Recurrent (40.1%) and mild disease (37.4%) were the most reasons for self- medication. The most commonly used medications categories for self-medication were antipyretics (76.3%), analgesics (63.0%), and antibiotics (42.0%). Conclusions: The prevalence of self-medication was high. Headache, body pain and fever were the most frequently reported symptoms that motived students to self-medication. The most frequent reasons cited were the condition is a recurrent and mild illness. Commonly used drugs were antipyretics, analgesics, and antibiotics. Sex and academic year were found to be the independent predictors for self-medication practice. Strict regulations to monitor availability and accessibility of medication are needed