Self-medication in medical students
International Journal of Development Research
Self-medication in medical students
Received 14th December, 2019; Received in revised form 03rd January, 2020; Accepted 17th February, 2020; Published online 30th March, 2020
Copyright © 2020, Thais França Barrionuevo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is a cross-sectional study that aimed to analyze the prevalence of self-medication in medical students at a private institution in Maringá, Paraná-Brazil. The data were collected through a self-administered and semi-structured questionnaire, data from 581 students were obtained. The profile of young people showed a higher proportion between 20-24 years old, female, white, single marital status, living alone. The vast majority (96%) have used medication without a prescription, 65% say they read the package inserts and 84% said they know the adverse effects of the drugs. Among the reasons for self-medication, headache, sore throat and fever stand out. The most used drugs were analgesics and antipyretics. Among young people, 30% say they do not have time to go to the doctor and 77% believe that there is no need to seek medical help for the problem presented. Only 36% reported having theoretical knowledge to self-medicate and more than half always have medication available at home. Knowing the profile of these young people allows the development of strategies that promote health, monitoring and guidance of this group.
