Prevalence and Patterns of Self Medication among Adults of Randomly Selected Villages in Rural Bangalore – A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Self medication using prescription medicines is common in certain developing countries due to lack of strict drug regulatory implementations and monitoring by the concerned authorities. Hence this study was carried out to know the prevalence and practices of self medication among the rural population of a village in rural Bangalore and plan for appropriate alternative health seeking behavior. Method: This is a descriptive cross- sectional study carried out in Ittamadu Rural Health Centre area covering a population of 10,875 people, coming under 19 villages, employing Multi Stage Random Sampling. Results: This study revealed that the prevalence of self medication was high (75.1%). Lack of time and financial reasons were found to be the most common reasons for self medication. Fever was found out to be the most common ailment for which self medication was practiced and analgesics were the most common drug used. Conclusion: This study revealed that prevalence of self medication was high among adult population aged 18-60 years and there existed statistical association between practice of self medication and socio demographic determinants like Gender, Storage of Drugs at home after use, Awareness regarding possibility of Adverse Drug reactions occurring.

Keywords

• Self Medication
• rural area
• Bangalore
• Prevalence
• patterns