Self Medication Practice among Tanta University Medical Students during COVID 19 Pandemic, Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 public health and community medicine- Faculty of medicine-Tanta university

2 Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

3 public health and community medicine-faculty of medicine tanta university

Abstract

Background: The growing influence of social media especially during pandemics, accessibility of over-the-counter medications and fear of contracting the virus may have led the general population to be active participants to control their health. Medical students are more influenced by such practices due to relevant basic knowledge, and easy accessibility to drugs.

Objectives: To find out the self-medication(SM) practice among Tanta university medical students during COVID 19 pandemic.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken among Tanta university medical students (Medicine, Pharmacy, and Dentistry) during March and April 2021. Self-administered validated reliable questionnaires were distributed among 504 participants by convenient sampling. Some students' representatives from each faculty were engaged in distributing it directly to their colleagues throughout well attended clinical faculty days due to hybrid educational system at the time of conducting the study.

Results: About three-quarters of the students (74.6%) used self-medication during COVID 19 pandemic and the most common used drug was antiviral medication (40.4%) followed by antibiotics (30.2%) and vitamin C and multivitamins (25.6%). Students reported many reasons behind this practice as70% of them needed to play an active role in their health issue and sixty percent didn’t want to go to the physician for fear of long waiting periods. The study participants agreed with the fact that professional help is needed, but with a variety of explanations.

Conclusion: High prevalence of self-medication practice among medical students during COVID 19 pandemic and the most common used drug was antiviral medication followed by antibiotics and vitamin C and multivitamins.

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