Practice of Self-medication and its Determinants among Non-medical Adult Population of Rawalpindi

Abstract

Objective: To analyse self-medication practice and its determinants among non-medical adult population of Rawalpindi. Study type, settings & duration: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in Rawalpindi city from April to September 2022. Methodology: The 382 non-medical adults were enrolled through consecutive non-probability sampling. Self-administered structured questionnaire was used to gather the information pertinent to demographics of study subjects, distance from healthcare facility, access to medicines, ways of demanding medicine from pharmacist, reasons/ ailments for self-medication and source of information about drug. The data was analysed by using SPSS version 25.0 and Microsoft Excel 2016. Chi-square test was applied to determine the association of self-medication practice with education and socio-economic status. p 0.05) with self-medication practice. Almost 61.8% of respondents were urban dwellers and 70% were students. About 40.14% were practicing self-medication in compliance with previous prescription. Conclusion: Female students are more indulged in self-medication practice for getting relief of their symptoms from previously prescribed medications.

Keywords

• self-medication
• determinants
• students
• urban dwellers
• previous prescription