Study on Self-medication Practices among University Students of Bangladesh

Aims: To know how much knowledge and awareness university students of Bangladesh have about commonly used medicines.

Study Design: The study was conducted on 1200 students randomly selected from 9 university of Bangladesh, in which 87.5% were master’s student and remaining 12.5% were honor’s students. Each willing participant shared their opinion.

Place and Duration of Study: Dhaka University (DU), Jahangirnagar University (JU), Eastern University (EU), East West University (EWU), Daffodil International University (DIU), North South University (NSU), International Islamic University Chittagong (IIUC), University of Information Technology & Science (UITS) and University of Science & Technology (USTC), Bangladesh, from May to July 2012.

Methodology: Questionnaires were distributed among the students, information about students and knowledge about self-medication practices of medicine was determined.

Results: The present study revealed that most frequently used medicine was analgesic/antipyretic (58.75%), followed by antiulcerants (40.17%), antibiotics (18.17%), antihistamines (10.58%) and antitussive (9.33%). 54.5% students took analgesic/antipyretic based on self-decision, followed by 49.83% antibiotics, 43.5% antiulcerants, 46.83% antitussives and 31.08% antihistamines respectively. Based on retailer advice 25% students took antimicrobials. 47.83% students said that they took antibiotics because of fever, 27% said the reason was infection, 13.58% took antibiotics because of GI disease and 12.5% mentioned others. 67.67% had no idea about side effect of antibiotics, followed by 53.17% for analgesic/antipyretic, 53.2% for antihistamine, 47.75% for antitussives and 28% for antiulcerants.

Conclusion: Self-medication was practiced with a range of drugs from the analgesic/antipyretic to antibiotics. Most of the students didn’t know about the side-effects of these medicines as well as the antibiotics resistance. Although the practice of self-medication is unavoidable; drug authorities and health professionals need to educate students about the health hazards of self-medication.