1. Practices, awareness and attitudes toward self-medication of analgesics among health sciences students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- Author
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Mohammed Al Essa, Abdulmajeed Alshehri, Mohammed Alzahrani, Rami Bustami, Shazia Adnan, Atheer Alkeraidees, Amjad Mudshil, and Jawaher Gramish
- Subjects
Therapeutics. Pharmacology ,RM1-950 - Abstract
Background: Self-medication is a common practice among health sciences students in Saudi Arabia. It is known that inappropriate selfmedication may harm individuals due to increasing the risk of drug misuse or delaying a hospital visit by masking some symptoms. Thus, the aim of our study is to investigate and assess practices, awareness and attitudes toward analgesics self-medication among health science students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study in a form of electronic survey that was conducted among health sciences students from different universities in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2016. Two hundred and seventy-two students responded to the questionnaire. The electronic questionnaire survey covered demographics, self-medication practice and the analgesics consumption, attitude and awareness about the safety of self-medication practice of analgesics. Results: Factors associated with high prevalence of self-medication were not significant except for age (P = 0.04). Health sciences students had adequate knowledge about the safety of analgesics consumption itself and simultaneous use of analgesics with other drugs, significantly different by college; 80% for Pharmacy, 71% for Medicine, 61% for Nursing and Dentistry, and 25% for Applied Medical Sciences and pre-professional students (p = 0.037). Conclusion: The occurrence of self-medication practices is distressingly high among health sciences students. It is necessary to educate the students about the side effects and drawbacks of irresponsible selfmedication. Keywords: Self-medication, Analgesics, Students, Saudi Arabia
- Published
- 2019
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