Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Determinants of Increasing Trend of Self-Medication in a Pakistani Community

Hafeezullah Khan¹ , Safirah Maheen¹, Alamgeer¹, Ghulam Abbas², Asif Mahmood¹, Rai Muhammad Sarfraz¹, Zaman Ashraf³, Muhammad Khalil¹, Muhammad Nasir Hayat Malik¹

¹Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sargodha, Sargodha; ²College of Pharmacy, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad; ³Department of Chemistry, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, Pakistan.

For correspondence:- Hafeezullah Khan Email: qaranipharmacist@yahoo.com Tel:+923368658751

Received: 17 January 2013 Accepted: 8 January 2014 Published: 24 March 2014

Citation: Khan H, Maheen S, Alamgeer , Abbas G, Mahmood A, Sarfraz RM, et al. Determinants of Increasing Trend of Self-Medication in a Pakistani Community. Trop J Pharm Res 2014; 13(3):437-443 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v13i3.19

© 2014 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the major reasons, sources, diseases and drugs responsible for increasing trend of self-medication.

Method: A community-based cross-sectional survey was carried out in the district of Faisalabad in Pakistan. Respondents (1488) were classified on the basis of age, sex, education, lifestyle and their economical level. A questionnaire was distributed among the sample population to collect data.

Results: Majority of respondents involved in self-medication were aged between 15 and 20 years. Family members (N = 717, 48 %) were considered the major source of information for self-medicated drugs. Lack of time (N = 504, 37 %) while economic issues (N = 485, 33 %) were the major reasons for self-medication. Medical stores were the source of drug purchase by 1087 (73 %) respondents. Headache (N = 772, 52 %) and fever (N = 600, 40 %) were the main indications for self-medication while 694 respondents reported that they engage in single-dose self-medication. Paracetamol (N = 689, 46 %), other analgesics (N = 488, 33 %), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (N = 680, 46 %) were reported to be used frequently for self-medication.

Conclusion: Self-medication is prevalent in the Pakistani community due to easy access to over the counter (OTC) and prescription-only medicines (POM). This may lead to untoward effects in consumers of the products. Special interventions by relevant regulatory agencies regarding the sale of the drugs are therefore required.

Keywords: Self-medication, OTC drugs, Pharmacist