COMMUNITY BASED SURVEY OF SELF-MEDICATION USAGE IN ANDHRA PRADESH

Abstract

The objective of the study is to evaluate usage of self-medication in the community setup. A total of 100 self-medication prescriptions were analyzed during the study period in retail pharmacy and it was found that males 71% purchased self-medication from the pharmacy then female. We found that the highest incidence of self-mediation was in the age group (26-35) 39 cases, followed by other age group, and most of the patients who had purchased single medication were 69, in between (2-4) medications were 26 followed by others. We found that the 21 patients had social habits like smoking, alcoholic and tobacco that had purchased self-medication in the pharmacy. The most frequent complaints from the patients were fever (18), pain (16), headache (15), acidity (14), vomiting (11), infection (11) cough (9), and others. The most frequently purchased drugs were the Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs), Anti-ulcer agents like H2-receptor blocker and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), Antibiotics, Antihistamines, Antiemetics and others. This survey shows that the majority of the people had a poor knowledge about appropriate self-medication while the knowledge of the benefits and risks was not adequate.