Prevalence and Current Practices of Self-Medication among Students of the Biomedicine Degree at the Health Sciences School

Abstract

Self-medication is often seen as a solution for the immediate relief of symptoms, however, bringing serious consequences to consumer's health and serious public health problems in Brazil and the world. Still, regarding self-medication, the conduct of University students in the health area is observed, since the habit in this group is high. Given these facts and the need for epidemiological and toxicological evidence on self-medication of this school group, this study aims to verify the prevalence of self-medication in Biomedicine Degree students of the Universidade Brasil. It is a cross-sectional study conducted with 63 scholars from the first three graduation years of the Biomedicine degree at the Universidade Brasil, in Fernandópolis, São Paulo. A validated questionnaire with social and medication consumption variables was applied, followed by statistical analysis by the Mann-Whitney test. As a result, self-medication was considered an option for 59 of the participants, most of them juniors, female, aged between 18 and 20, with no previous college degree, with medical insurance and aware of possible health risks, even after access to classes or online surveys. The clinical condition preceding self-medication included mainly headache, myalgia, fever, and allergies. There was a preference for anthelmintic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic medication, mainly antibiotics, and central nervous system stimulants. The habit of self-medication increases, gradually, during the graduation period, therefore is suggested the implementation of an educational campaign in the Biomedicine course curriculum to undo this cycle of chemical substance consumption.