Evaluation of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice about Self-medication Among Rural and Urban North Indian Population

Background: The practice of self-medication is very common in developing countries like India. Several problems have been reported to be associated with self-medication like wastage of resources, adverse drug reactions and antimicrobial resistance. Not many studies in past have explored the differences regarding the knowledge, attitude and practice of selfmedication in rural and urban population of India. Subjects and Methods: The present study was a community based cross sectional study aimed to gather information about the self-medication practices, knowledge and attitude and its factors affecting self medication in the rural and urban population of Moradabad District, Uttar Pradesh from March 2014 to May 2014. Data for self medication were collected through a pre-designed and face validated from the studied population. All data were coded, entered and analyzed using the statistical package for Social sciences program version 20.0 (Chicago, IL, USA). Results: The response rate was 90.47%.The present study shows 100% study participants practiced self-medication. Majority of the participants are male (58.4%) and more than 63% belonged to rural area. Almost 60% respondents believed that OTC medications are safe. 75% participants believed chronic use of OTC drugs can cause ADRs. Majority of participants did not follow the recommendations while using these medicines. Participants belong to urban area was more aware of non-prescription drugs (p<0.05).NSAIDs are most commonly used medication among both urban and rural population respectively 67% and 37%. Conclusion: The prevalence of self-medication was high among rural population. The level of knowledge was more among urban population and NSAIDs were the highest consumed medicine among both rural and urban population. Population health awareness programs by pharmacists especially at retail pharmacy and continuing education are essential for controlling self-medication. Hence, there is a need to launch educational campaigns to bridge gap of knowledge especially in rural population. It is imperative that Government and other concerned organizations should promote rational self-medication and well-being in rural communities.