Self-medication among university students: the influence of the field of study

The scope of this paper was to investigate the influence of a university student's field of study upon self-medication. A cross-sectional study was conducted through the administration of questionnaires on the profile of the respondents, self-medication and other healthcare-related issues. In all, 342 students from different fields of study were interviewed, 81 of which were from the health area. Of the respondents, 37% reported self-medicating in the last fortnight. The most common health problems for self-medication in this period were general pain (90.4%) and analgesics and antipyretics were the most common form of medication. It was observed that being female (p=0.049), as well as the fact of having health insurance (p=0.036), were significantly associated with self-medication and that studying in the health area was not associated with self-medication (0.139). However, it was found that the influence of advertising (p<0.001), old prescriptions (p=0.041), pharmacists or pharmacy employees (p=0.005), as well as friends, neighbors and relatives (p=0.003) were more significant among university students who were not within the health area, though the influence of acquired knowledge (p<0.001) is more significant among students in the health area.