Non-medical Use of Analgesics among Medical Students

Background: Non-medical use of medications is defined as the use of treatment for disorders which self-diagnosed. There are multiple factors could shape such use like; age, education, family, and society. Objectives: The current study was carried out to estimate prevalence of non-medical use of analgesics and to investigate potential risk factors of nonmedical use of analgesics among (Al-Azhar university) medical students. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study which was conducted during the period (March to May 2016) using self administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was circulated and accomplished by 1097 medical students attending two faculties of medicine “Girls and boys” in Cairo, Egypt. Data was analyzed using STATA version 13. A multiple logistic regression model was built to investigate potential covariates of nonmedical use of analgesics. Results: non-medical use of analgesics in the previous 6 months was 68.92%, and it was more prevalent among female students (70.69%). Analgesic use in the previous six months was one time in 66.80%, double in 14.95%, triple times in 10.71% and more than three times in 7.54% of the medical students. Of all the medical students, 23.52% reported headache as the problem while around 12.00% claimed bone and tooth aches as the main causes of their non-medical use of analgesics. The more likely used basic knowledge for non-medical use of analgesics were friends and families recommendations (42.0%), formerly used analgesics (12.4%), their own basic knowledge (6.9%) and a pharmacist suggestion (4.0%). Regarding the independent predictors of non-medical usage of analgesics, older students were more 1.2 times likely to be experience non-medical use. Male medical students were 1.29 times more likely experienced non-medical use. In general, the results revealed that students with co-morbidities were 1.95 times more probably experienced nonmedical use of analgesics. Conclusion: non-medical use of analgesics is expanded among medical students in (Al-Azhar University). This might be an alarming signal for all policy makers of the Egyptian community. Insufficient information about analgesics, draw the attention for the magnitude of training courses and education over the social media.