Prevalence of self-medication and its associated factors among students of an engineering college in Chennai

CONTEXT: Self-medication in healthcare is becoming an increasingly important area. However, risks such as misdiagnosis, inappropriate drug dosage, extended time of use, drug interactions and polypharmacy are also associated with it. AIMS: The present cross-sectional study aims to study the prevalence of self-medication and its associated factors among engineering students. SETTING AND DESIGN: The present cross-sectional study was conducted in an engineering college in Chennai. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 199 participants were studied. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire including general information and specific questions regarding the prevalence of self-medication and its associated factors was given to the study participants and were instructed to fill them. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Data were recorded and analysed in the excel spreadsheet using SPSS software version 16 and Chi-square test was used to perform interferential statistical analysis. RESULTS: 199 engineering students were studied, ranging from 1(st) year to 4(th) year between the age group of 17–25 years. From the data collected, 154 (77.4%) participants said they had been on self-medications before and 45 (22.6%) participants said they have never been on self-medication. CONCLUSIONS: From this study we come to a conclusion that the prevalence of self-medication among the engineering students in sub-urban Chennai is high that is 77.4%. The parameters frequently linked with self-medication are the type of illness and the easy access to drugs. Since self-medication is at an alarming rate, the need of the hour is to educate the youth to ensure healthy practice.