Awareness and Practice of Over-the-Counter Drugs in a Selected Community of Nepal

Abstract

Introduction: In developing countries drug monitoring system is not efficient and patients can easily buy drugs without any prescription. The users believe those drugs to be all safe. There is more awareness regarding over-the-counter drugs in urban population. Objectives: To assess the awareness and practice of over-the-counter (OTC) drugs among young and adults in a selected Nepalese community. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among people of Basundhara, Kathmandu of age group 20-40 years. Non-probability convenience sampling was done to select 384 respondents. Structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The data was analysed in SPSS version 16.0 program. Results: The majority of the participants were in the age range of 31-40 years with the mean age of 30.16±5.28. Findings regarding the awareness revealed that 60.7% and 88.1% participants knew the correct meaning and precaution of over-the-counter drugs respectively, 32.8% obtained the information through friends, 55.2% told that easy accessibility was the reason for taking OTC drugs. Drugs using without prescription were 92.4%, 80.2% reuse the previous prescription when the illness was similar, 75.3% suggested others to take over the counter drugs and 46.1% used the medicine even if its color and odor was unusual. Conclusion: In conclusion, people are aware about over-the-counter drugs. However, they are taking it rampantly and seem uncontrollable too. Thus, it is important to organise the continuing education for pharmacists and awareness program by policy makers to the community people about appropriate use of OTC medications to prevent the chances of drug misuse.