Self-Medication Practice And Associated Factor Drug Study

Context: To find the effect of self-medication in general populations. Aims: To determine the effect of self-medication ophthalmic drugs on patient’s eye health. Settings and Design: This is a Prospective, hospital-based cross-sectional study. Patients who visited the Chaudhari Netralaya Retina and Laser Centre Eye Hospital for a general eye examination with ocular complaints after taking self-medication during the period from July 2023 to June 2024. Methods and Material: This study was conducted as a prospective observational study, where patients who visited the hospital for an eye examination were interviewed with several questions. Among 783 patients, 177 took self-medication ophthalmic drugs before seeing the ophthalmologist for an eye examination. Statistical Analysis: The statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software version 19.0. The results were presented in tables as frequency and percentages. Suitable statistical tests of significance were used to determine the results, and a p-value of less than 0.05 is considered significant. Results: The average age of participants was 42.14 ±19.94 years. The study examined various eye-related symptoms, with