Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Self Medication: A Cross-sectional Study among Yemeni Health Profession Students

摘要

Self-medications practice is increasing widely. It is expected to be higher in health students due to their awareness and knowledge of diseases and medicines. The Aim of the study to assess the self-medications among the first year students of health science facilities in Aden University, Yemen. Cross sectional study was conducted using Questionnaire from previous study served as the data collection instrument among first year students who were available during study period. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the frequency of variable A total of 231 out of 250 questionnaires were completed and returned, which gives the response rate of 92.4%. 119 (51.5 %) of respondents were male and 112(48.5%) of them were female. Approximately 69 (29.9 %) of respondents had no Knowledge on definition of Self-medication at all, only 25 (10.8 %) had very much knowledge about it , majority of respondents 82 (68.9 %) stated that they did so because the illness were minor were among the most reasons for self-medication, followed by prior experiences with the previous episode and treatment 72 (60.5 %), emergency use 54(45.4 %), quick relief 46 (38.7%) , cost effectiveness 42 (35.3 %) and 39 (32.8 %) of respondents reported that lack of time to go for consultation . The most common sources of information used by the respondent were text books and pharmacists. The attitude was positive towards self-medication and favored self-medication saying that it was acceptable. Self-medication habits were common among first year students of faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Aden University in Yemen. An urgent and rapid intervention should be made to promote health awareness of the self-medication among students because the percentages of using antibiotics and other classes of medicines are alarming. Students must be educated about the potential hazard of using medicines without physician advices and their serious adverse reactions. The Ministry of Health and Population must enact laws regulating the dispensing of medicines from pharmacies.