Determinants of self-medication among undergraduate students at King Saud University: Knowledge, attitude and practice

Background and Objectives: In Saudi Arabia, most drugs can be obtained from pharmacies without a professional prescription, and despite the prevalence of self-medication, few comprehensive studies were conducted to assess this practice. This study was performed to evaluate self-medication and its pattern among different groups of King Saud University students. Materials and Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was carried out from November 2014 to April 2015. The targeted population of the study was 477 out of 35,810 undergraduate medical and non-medical students at King Saud University. Data were analysed using SPSS (21.0), and descriptive statistics was used to describe the categorical study and outcome variables. Chi-square test was used to compare the distribution of proportions. Results: The prevalence of self-medication within the study period was 50.9% of the respondents (45.18% male and 54.02% female). Cold and flu symptoms were the most common indication among medical (74%) and non-medical students (88.2%). Bacterial and viral infections (P = 0.001) were a common indication among the medical students (19.4%). Analgesics (P = 0.333) was the most common drug used in self-medication among medical (89.7%) and non-medical students (85.3%). Aspirin (P = 0.013) and herbals (P = 0.0001) were reported to be predominantly used by the non-medical students. Conclusion: Half of the respondents practice self-medication; which demonstrates the need to raise public awareness, becoming more conscious during drug utilisation and the pharmacists' advisory role. In addition, further studies should be conducted to assess the herbals' practice in our community as their use was reported to be high in the results.