International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

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 Volume 7, Issue 3 (March 2020), Pages: 130-134

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 Original Research Paper

 Title: Awareness and use of over the counter analgesic medication: A survey in the Aseer region population, Saudi Arabia

 Author(s): Sultan M. Alshahrani 1, *, Khaled M. Alakhali 2, Yaser Mohammed Al-Worafi 3, Najim Z. Alshahrani 4

 Affiliation(s):

 1Clinical Pharmacy Department, College of Pharmacy, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia
 2Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, College of Pharmacy, USCI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
 3Clinical Pharmacy Department, College of Pharmacy, University of Science and Technology of Fujairah, Fujairah, United Arab Emirates
 4Department of Family Medicine, College of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

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 * Corresponding Author. 

  Corresponding author's ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6194-7092

 Digital Object Identifier: 

 https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2020.03.015

 Abstract:

The aim of this study was to explore the self-medication with OTC analgesics practice and awareness among the public in Aseer, Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study was conducted between June and October 2017 among the public in the Aseer region, Saudi Arabia. 468 out 600 of the distributed questionnaires were completed. The majority of respondents were female (53.8%, n=254). About 48.7% of the respondents were younger than 25 years old. 72.6% of participants graduated or learned at university. The majority of participants are singles (78%, n=345). were of participants in this study are Saudis (96.9%). The prevalence of self-medication with OTC analgesics was 53.5 %. Paracetamol was the most common analgesic used by the participants in this study (68.2%) followed by Ibuprofen (23%). headache was reported as the most common symptom associated with self-medication used (50.9%) followed by toothache (28.1%), fatigue (10.6 %) and the least reported symptom was back pain (10.3%). majority of participants had poor knowledge of OTC analgesics. The current study shows that the self-medication with OTC analgesics was common in Aseer, Saudi Arabia. A lack of awareness towards analgesics was found in this study. Education programs towards analgesics use, doses, side effects, and other issues are highly recommended. 

 © 2020 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords: OTC, Analgesics, Self-medications, Saudi Arabia, Public awareness

 Article History: Received 20 October 2019, Received in revised form 10 January 2020, Accepted 10 January 2020

 Acknowledgment:

The authors would like to express the utmost gratitude to King Khalid University for technical and administrative support. In addition, we would like to thank the primary health care centers, where the study was performed, for their help and assistance.

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Ethical considerations: This study was approved by King Khalid University, College of Pharmacy (08/06/2015), Saudi Arabia. Written consent was obtained from the participants. Furthermore, no personal data was obtained from the participants. 

 Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

 Citation:

 Alshahrani SM, Alakhali KM, and Al-Worafi YM et al. (2020). Awareness and use of over the counter analgesic medication: A survey in the Aseer region population, Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 7(3): 130-134

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 Tables

 Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5

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