Study On The College Students’ Self-medication Behaviour In Henan Province

ObjectiveAs the future hope of our nation, more and more college students carry out self-medication to prevent and cure some minor common diseases. But due to lack of medical knowledge and life experiences, this process often poses many risks, some of which might be severely life-threatening. So it is necessary to take measures to improve the knowledge of college students’ self-medication and promote students’ safety so as to implement the medication effectively. In this study, the structure of college students’ self-medication, impact factors and risky procedures were all analysed to discuss possible ways of improving students ’self-medication level, which, on the one hand, provide some basis for college to foster the physically and mentally healthy students, and on the other, is beneficial to help improve the safety and efficacy of students’ self-medication.MethodsThe method of quantitative and qualitative analysis combined was applied in this study, and resources from journals, monographs and statistical data were used as references. Questionnaires took a college in Henan Province as the research site, college students who have had self-medication behaviours as research subjects, stratified random sampling as the method, and200copies of the questionnaires were randomly delivered to the school of science, engineering, liberal arts and medicine, respectively,50for each grade of the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior.800questionnaires were issued in total, and788valid questionnaires were collected, all of which were built into a database using the software of Epidata3.0, analysed with SPSS13.0statistical software, and tested by X2quantitative analysis. The qualitative data were derived from the observations of the college students self-medication behaviours and in-depth interviews with the pharmacy staff and pharmacists.Results1.Top three reasons for college students to purchase medication on their own are minor sick situation(43.3%), suffering similar diseases from past(28.9%) and easy access to medicines(13.8%). The self-diagnosises are mainly based on personal experience (52.8%), consulting with pharmacy clerk(23.6%) and relatives and friends(8.6%). When self-diagnosis proves to be wrong,76.8%went to see the doctor,9percent to consult with the pharmacy clerk, and2%to relatives and friends.2.There are62.3%of students who often check in the pharmaceutical production date and validity period and7.2%never check,64.8%who will pay attention to the package insert and4.3%never will,14%who are well aware of the indications and4.3%do not have a clue,81.5%who often look at the usage and dose and4.4%never do, and10.4%of the students would not consult with the pharmacist or clerk while purchasing.3.There are73.4%of students who often read product manual in the medication and1.6%never read,67.5%who often read the adverse reactions and precautions and4.3%never have,17.1%who fully understand the package insert and3.2%completely do not understand,4.1%who determine the usage and dose based on personal experience,65%on book descriptions and only28.9%in accordance with the guidance of doctors or pharmacists,37.3%who take the medication in the wrong way, and24.2%of the students do not pay attention to its validity, and storage conditions.ConclusionsAs for the students, they should deepen the understanding of drug systems, strengthen the awareness of drug knowledge, and create a personal medication file; As for the school, they should enrich the school activities, promote the self-medication knowledge, and carry out social practices, build up networking platforms, and enhance the popularity of self-medication knowledge; As for the society, we should improve the services of pharmacists, supervise the drug advertising more strictly, and regulate the contents of the package insert.