Self Medication with Antibiotics among Medical and Pharmacy Students in North India

Self medication practices among the medical and paramedical professionals have been reported in many countries, however, very limited research was done exclusively on antibiotic in North India. This study was designed to assess the prevalence and pattern of antibiotic usage for self diagnosed diseases among the medical and pharmacy students. This was a questionnaire based cross sectional study conducted among medical and pharmacy students in North India. A total 326 students participated in the study and data of 316 students were eligible for analysis. 57.63% medical and 66.9% pharmacy students reported to use antibiotics in last one year. Fever was the predominant ailments for which medical (48.41%) and pharmacy (46.88%) students' self medicated. Most of the medical (74.6%) and pharmacy (61.9%) students had preferred amoxicillin for their ailments. The majority of medical students, 65.87% have self medicated because of their pharmacological knowledge in contrast to 62.1% pharmacy students. Adverse drug reaction experienced by 29.36% and 11.7% medical and pharmacy students respectively. Statistically no significant difference was observed in antibiotic usage between medical and pharmacy students (p = 0.08). To curb the growing trend of this unethical practices students of health care professional needs to be educated.