Self-medication with analgesics among medical and pharmacy students of university of Duhok-Kurdistan region, Iraq

Abstract EN

Self-medication refers to the use of medications without any medical consultation.

It is a prevalent practice among the general population and university students according to many studies in Europe, United States and in the neighbor countries in our region.

Analgesics are the most popular medications used for self-medication.

Few studies have been conducted in our area.The study aims to evaluate self-medication trends with analgesics among medicine and pharmacy students at Duhok University in Duhok, Kurdistan Region, Iraq.

Between November 2017 and April 2018, a cross-sectional questionnaire-based analysis of undergraduate medical and pharmacy students at University of Duhok was performed.

In the questionnaire, 267 students engaged and filled in.

The data were processed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences.

Self-medication was highly prevalent among medical and pharmacy students (85 %).

The most prominent factor for self-medication with analgesics was the prior experience with using the same analgesic (56.9 %).

Headaches were the most frequent symptom that lead to self-medication (51.3 %).

Paracetamol was a widely applied analgesic (38.3 %).

The internet (44.6 %) was the most prevalent source of information for self-medication.

Approximately 86% of students chose to take the analgesic only where there is serious pain.