Antibiotics Self-Medication Among Medical and Non-Medical Students of Omar Al-Mukhtar University

Self- consumption of antibiotics is being a big concern over the world, excessive as well as incorrect using of antibiotics give rise to various complications like spreading resistance of antibiotics, delaying in the disease diagnosis, masking the symptoms and making an infection worse which make it hard to find the appropriate treatment. This survey was conducted to determine prevalence, pattern of consumption, possible reasons, awareness as well as knowledge about self-consumption of antibiotics among both medical and non-medical students at Omar Al-Mukhtar University, Al-Bayda, Libya. A cross- sectional survey was carried out targeting both medical and non-medical students at Omar Al-Mukhtar University, Al-Bayda, Libya. 508 students were included in this research, 282 were medical students and 226 were non-medical students. The information was gathered from a printed questionnaire and an electronic questionnaire, which has been analyzed by using the Microsoft Excel software. Our research noticed that, the mean age was 22.215% for all participants, including males 259 (51.19%) and females 247 (48.81%). Approximately, 63.58% of Students practiced self-medication with antibiotics.59.54% of respondents picked the pharmacist as a preferred source of antibiotics. Moreover 20.6% of the students experienced antibiotics to treat sore throat during 6 months ago, while 19.08% of them had flu. Most students (72.18%) had a knowledge about the adverse effects of antibiotics while, 27.81% of them did not have any idea about the adverse effects. Fortunately, most students (70.7%) did not suffer any side effects. Penicillin groups (penicillin 20.4% and amoxicillin 17.32%) were the common self-consumed antibiotics between Omar Al-Mukhtar University students. Most students (70.79%) did not complete their antibiotics course and 4.42% of them had antibiotics for >7days. Self-consumption of antibiotics is common and widely spread between medical and non-medical Students at Omar Al-Mukhtar University, Al-Bayda, Libya. There is a pressing need to enforce legislation to regulate antibiotics access, more awareness campaigns are needed to spread knowledge about the possible complications of antibiotics between the students.