To Determine the Rate of Antibiotic Self-Medication Practices among Undergraduate Students in District Abbottabad

Abstract

Self-medication is defined as acquiring and using medications without the advice of a doctor for
diagnosis, prescription, or therapy monitoring. The objectives of this study to estimate the prevalence of
self-medication with antibiotics among under graduate students in district Abbottabad, Pakistan. This
descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Vertex Institute of Science and Technology, Comsats
University Abbottabad and University of Engineering & Technology Abbottabad Campus from
undergraduate students of Generic Nursing, Pharmacy and Engineering. We interviewed and responses
were recorded on a close ended questionnaire. In this study, 298 undergraduate students participated, of
those 221 (74.2%) male students and 77 (25.8%) female students admitted using self-medication. The most
frequently used antibiotics were amoxicillin (39.5%), ciprofloxacin (9.05%), erythromycin (9.72%),
metronidazole (8.05%), and other antibiotics (24.8%) and most users reported no negative medication
reactions. About 40.60% students are aware of rational drug use and 59.40% students are not aware of the
rational drug use. The students at the universities frequently use self-medication, with antibiotics being the
most frequently used drug class and cough, fever and cold being the most prevalent morbidities for doing
so. Students frequently self-administer prescription-only drugs, such as antibiotics, in the mistaken belief
that doing so will save them money and time but doing so can have serious negative drug reactions, lead to
antibiotic resistance, cause treatment failure and cause drug-related toxicity, all of which are costly for both
patients and healthcare services.