Prevalence of self-medication among students of Umm Al-Qura and Al-Baha Universities in Saudi Arabia

Background: Self-medication is defined as the self-administration of medication based on self-diagnosis without visiting a physician or having a prescription and is a public health concern with potentially harmful consequences. Our study aimed to explore patterns of self-medication among medical and non-medical students at Umm Al-Qura and Al-Baha Universities in southwestern Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: An online, self-administered, questionnaire-based, cross-sectional survey was conducted via Google Forms for 3 weeks among students at Umm Al-Qura and Al-Baha Universities. Results: Out of the 418 students who responded to the questionnaire, 74.2% were practicing self-medication. The use of painkillers was significantly different among both the medical (40.4%) and non-medical students (61.5%). As for reasons to practice self-medication, time savings (40.3%) mild symptoms (20.0%), previous experience (14.8%), and financial reasons (14.5%) were the most common, with the flu symptoms (23.9%) and headache (23.5%) being the most reported symptoms treated by self-medication. Conclusions: Self-medication is a widespread practice among medical and non-medical students at Umm Al-Qura and Al-Baha Universities which needs to be mitigated by health education and effective preventive and interventional policies.