Abstract

Self-medication is defined as procuring and utilizing drugs for diagnosing, treating or preventing disease or for promoting health. It can also be defined as the consumption of non- prescription drugs on the user’s own initiative.If practiced appropriately, self- medication (SM) has a lot of advantages. However indiscriminate use of these drugs leads to risks such as misdiagnosis, use of excessive drug dosage, prolonged duration of use, drug interactions and polypharmacy owing to a dearth of knowledge about the right dose, adverse effects and interaction with other drugs or components of food, all of which will have serious implications for the individuals consuming them. Self-medication is associated with increased resistance to pathogens.  Self-medication is identified to be one of the most important cause of antibiotic resistance.
METHODOLOGY:
A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out in the field practice area of Urban Health training centre of Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital by interview using a structured questionnaire among 440 consenting individuals aged 18 years and above selected using simple random sampling method.
RESULTS:
56.6% reported to have used medications without reaching out to a health care provider. Out 19.3%) knew what type of medicine they were taking, 33.3% knew about the medication but were unsure. 4% of participants were completely unaware of the medicines they took. Significant association was found among socio demographic characteristics with higher prevalence seen among employed participants, married participants, participants from joint family and lower socioeconomic status.