¹Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College and Hospital, Nagapattinam.

²Tutor, Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College and Hospital, Karur.

^3,4,5,6,7,8CRRI of Government Medical College, Omandurar Government Estate, Chennai -02.

Corresponding Author: Dr.Uppili Venkat Ragavan.M, Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College and Hospital, Nagapattinam. Email id: ragavanmdcm@gmail.com; Mobile: 9940653970

Citation: Dr.Uppili Venkat Ragavan.M, Dr.Kavitha.V, Dr.Lokesh.R, Dr.Lokesh.S, Dr.Madhumita.S, Dr.Madhurika Kumari, Dr.Mahendran.K, Dr.Malini.M (2023) A Cross Sectional Study on Self Medication Practices in an Urban Population. Int J Fam Med Pub Health, 2(2);1-4.

Copyrights: © 2023, Dr.Uppili Venkat Ragavan.M, et al., This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract:

background: Self- medication practices are a major threat to the health and well-being of people worldwide. it can cause increased morbidity, adverse drug reactions, drug interactions, antibiotic resistance and wastage of health care resources. the objective of this study is to obtain baseline data on self-medication practices in an urban population, to obtain information on the factors influencing self-medication, to note association of self-medication with adverse effects and to assess the general health status of the population using self-medication. Methods: This is a cross sectional study conducted in Pudhupet residential area of Chennai. It included 100 participants and was conducted over a span of 2 months. This is a questionnaire based study and the subjects were asked to fill the questionnaire with the help of the investigators. Informed consent was obtained from the subjects participating in this study. Results: Around 67% of the study population has taken self-medication sometime in the past. Headache – 40% is the most common ailment for which self-medication is taken by the study population. 45% of the study population claims to have taken self-medication rather than visiting a hospital because the pharmacy is nearby. Around 44% of the study population choose drug for self-medication based on the recommendation of the pharmacist. Analgesics- 50% are the most common self-medicated drugs. About 89% of the study population did not experience any adverse effects due to the self-medicated drug. Conclusion: The prevalence of self-medication practices is found to be high in the study population. This presses on a need to promote better health education regarding proper utilization of health care services and avoiding self-medication practices. Effective implementation of existing drug regulations and formulating new methods of monitoring will also be helpful in the long run.

Keywords: Self-medication, Urban Population, Prevalence, Questionnaire Study.