Alsaad Hassan A, Almahdi Jenan Saleh, Alsalameen Nourah Ali, Alomar Fadhel Ahmed, Islam Md Ashraful
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Clinical Pharmacy, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
College of Clinical Pharmacy, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Pharm J. 2022 Jul;30(7):927-933. doi: 10.1016/j.jsps.2022.05.010. Epub 2022 May 30.
Self-medication (SM) plays an essential role in maintaining a good quality of life for individuals. Previous studies suggested that efforts are still needed to ensure the safe practice of SM. The advances in technology and the internet have granted the availability of abundant and easily accessed medication information. However, identifying the reliability of information could be a challenge for the public. This study aimed to investigate the attitude toward SM, determinants of SM, and knowledge about medication in Saudi Arabia. Also, this study aimed to assess the willingness to use a mobile app that would be specifically designed to guide the practice of SM.
A cross-sectional study was conducted in a form of an online survey among the public in Saudi Arabia. QuestionPro® platform was utilized to collect data from respondents for two months. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM® SPSS® statistics version 26.
A total of 1226 individuals completed the questionnaire. The prevalence of SM practice was 59%. The most frequent reason for not practicing SM was the concern about the drug safety issues (38%). Significant statistical associations were identified between SM and several demographic variables, e.g., age, gender, education, health insurance, and having a chronic illness. Most respondents (82.7%) were aware of the necessity of improving SM practice. Knowledge about different aspects of SM (e.g., proper drug selection and administration) was evaluated based on the consumer's perspective. Our data showed that overall knowledge about SM was limited for many consumers. The assessment of the participant's willingness to use a SM app indicated that 47.6% were interested in using such app. This willingness was significantly associated with the consumer's attitude toward SM and being a chronically ill patient.
SM is a common practice in Saudi Arabia. However, public awareness about SM is limited. So, implementing new strategies to enhance knowledge and ensure the safety of SM is important. A large proportion of participants were interested to use a SM app, which would improve SM practice. Therefore, we recommend developing a SM-oriented app to be used by the public in Saudi Arabia.
自我药疗在维持个体良好生活质量方面发挥着重要作用。先前的研究表明，仍需努力确保自我药疗的安全实施。技术和互联网的进步使人们能够获取丰富且易于获取的药物信息。然而，对公众而言，识别信息的可靠性可能是一项挑战。本研究旨在调查沙特阿拉伯民众对自我药疗的态度、自我药疗的决定因素以及药物知识。此外，本研究旨在评估使用一款专门设计用于指导自我药疗实践的移动应用程序的意愿。
以在线调查的形式对沙特阿拉伯公众进行了一项横断面研究。利用QuestionPro®平台在两个月内从受访者收集数据。使用IBM® SPSS® statistics 26版进行统计分析。
共有1226人完成了问卷。自我药疗实践的发生率为59%。不进行自我药疗的最常见原因是对药物安全问题的担忧（38%）。在自我药疗与几个人口统计学变量（如年龄、性别、教育程度、健康保险和患有慢性病）之间发现了显著的统计学关联。大多数受访者（82.7%）意识到改善自我药疗实践的必要性。基于消费者视角评估了关于自我药疗不同方面（如正确的药物选择和给药）的知识。我们的数据表明，许多消费者对自我药疗的总体知识有限。对参与者使用自我药疗应用程序意愿的评估表明，47.6%的人有兴趣使用此类应用程序。这种意愿与消费者对自我药疗的态度以及作为慢性病患者显著相关。
自我药疗在沙特阿拉伯是一种常见做法。然而，公众对自我药疗的认识有限。因此，实施新策略以增强知识并确保自我药疗的安全性很重要。很大一部分参与者有兴趣使用一款自我药疗应用程序，这将改善自我药疗实践。因此，我们建议开发一款面向沙特阿拉伯公众使用的自我药疗应用程序。
