Avaliação da prática da automedicação entre acadêmicos de Farmácia de uma universidade pública da região oeste do Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The wide diversity and easy access to some classes of medications encourages self-medication. It is observed that this practice is not only common among laypeople, but is also widely practiced by people with different levels of education, especially among university students. In this sense, the present study aimed to analyze the practice of self-medication among students of the Pharmacy course at the Universidade Federal do Pampa, Campus Uruguaiana/RS. To this end, questionnaires were applied to students from the 1st to the 8th semester. The results showed that 79.04% of the students self-medicate only when necessary, encouraged by the fact that they have already used some of these medications previously. The desire to relieve pain (27.50%) and flu or cold symptoms (23.26%) were the most cited reasons for self-medication with analgesics (15.76%), anti-inflammatories (15.15%), anti-flu (14.03%) and anti-allergy medications (12.69%). Personal knowledge (21.91%) and the package insert (20.35%) were the main sources of prior knowledge about the use of medications. Finally, 74.95% of the students stated that there was no increase in the practice of self-medication after they entered the undergraduate course, proving that the knowledge acquired throughout the course contributed to the rational use of medications.

Keywords: Self-medication. Pharmacy Course. UNIPAMPA.