Knowledge, attitude and practice of self-medication among medical students during exam time

Abstract

Background: Medical education is one of the toughest education systems where the stu­dents are under intense physical and mental pressure especially during the exam time. They have information of different drugs that can cope with their medical conditions and also aware of different cognitive enhancers. Self-medication results in wastage of resource, ad­verse effects, drug dependence and increase chances of resistance of pathogens. Hence, this study was undertaken to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of irrational drug use among the medical students during the exam time.

Methods: This was descriptive cross-sectional using semi-structured questionnaire in the one of the medical school located inside Kathmandu Valley. A total of 90 students participated in the study. The data was analyzed with SPSS version 20, by using descriptive statistics.

Results: Among the total respondents,20 (17.7%) were practicing self-medication during the exam time. Of the participants who practiced the self-medication, most common drug used was NDAIDs. Most of the respondents 87(96.7%) were aware of the possible adverse consequences. About 75(83.3%) participants thought the self-medication practice during the exam time is acceptable while 15(16.7%) regarded this as unacceptable.

Conclusions: Although low incidence of self-medication was found among students during exam time, the false prerogative of being medical students can lead to meager practice and awful con­sequences.