A study to assess the patterns of self medication practice among women employees working in health care services

• Published in: Journal of medical and scientific research (Online) Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 11 - 17
• Main Authors: Hafeez SA, Rao BS, Jyotsna MM, Ramanamurthy KV
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: KIMS Foundation and Research Center 04.01.2021
• Subjects: patterns of self medication practice; self medication; women employees
• ISSN: 2321-1326; 2394-112X
• DOI: 10.17727/JMSR.2021/9-3

Objective: To assess the patterns of self medication practice among women employees working in health care services. Study design: A non experimental survey approach with descriptive design was selected to understand the patterns of self medication among women employees working in health care services. Study was conducted in OMNI group of Hospitals, Hyderabad, India. Methods: Interview schedule was prepared with systematic reviewed literature and data was obtained from 600 sample selected using convenient sampling technique. Collected data was analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics using statistical package for the social sciences software version-20. Graphical representation was made for significant findings. Results: Women employees under study, 437 (72.8%) stated that they are self medication users which was considerably the highest percentage, majority 250(41.7%) of them have family and friends as there source of knowledge. The study results showed that majority of the sample are using self medication in specific patterns. It also proved that maximum number of sample i.e., 455 (75.8%) inform the physician about self medicated drugs on consultation, 434 (72.3%). Procure drug only from pharmacy, 424 (70.7%) avoid self medication with old prescription and 419 (69.8%) stated that they avoid sharing drugs prescribed to someone else. Conclusion: Self medication is widely practiced among women employees in health care services and is an emerging cause of self induced risk factor for healthy living, due to the knowledge and hand to hand availability of drugs.