Lack of time, low cost consultation, and trust in medical doctor were reported as main reasons in other studies. Other reasons for self-medication among university students were their previous experiences, advice of family or friends, their health problems being considered as too trivial, time saving, nonavailability of transport, convenience, ability to self-manage the symptoms, urgency of the problem, doctor that was not available, and having sufficient information. Media exposure and the increase of pharmaceuticals advertisement pose a larger threat to this population as it was found that majority of college students used at least one of the advertised products, without discussing it with their physicians. Studies revealed that self-medication represents a common problem among university students. Self-medication patterns vary among different populations and are influenced by various features, such as age, gender, income and expenditure, self-care orientation, educational level, medical knowledge, satisfaction, and nonseriousness of illnesses. Self-medication with OTC medications is a worldwide public health problem and is more experienced in developing countries. Self-medication is defined as getting and consuming drug without the guidance of physician for either diagnosis, treatment, or supervision of the treatment generally involving over-the-counter (OTC) medications but also including prescription-only medicines (POM), at the same time it includes buying drugs by reutilizing/resubmitting a previous prescription, taking medicines on advice of relative or others, or consuming leftover medicines already available at home. Prevalence of self-medication among university students is high which constitutes a health problem that needs intervention. Being medical student, being from urban area, having good current health condition, being careless about health, and having drugs stored at home pharmacy were independently associated with the likelihood of self-medicating. Younger age, female, medical, and ever-married students and those having home pharmacy tended to self-medicate more than their peers with significant difference between them. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in Mansoura University, Egypt, and included 1st and last year students of both medical and nonmedical faculties. To explore the prevalence of self-medication practices among university students, probable reasons, symptoms requiring self-medication, and sources of advice.
Self-medication is a common practice in developed and developing countries.
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