Journal of North Khorasan

Abstract Background: self-medication as a health and social concerns can cause serious problem for individual and society. Therefore this study aimed to determine the prevalence of self-medication and its related factors among the students of Bojnurd universities in 2012. Methods: This is a cross-sectional and descriptive study .For the purpose of this study, stratified random sampling was applied to select 600 subjects from 3 Universities namely,Medical university, Islamic Azad university and Payam Noor university. Data were collected via a self-made questionnaire which consisted of demographic and self medication questions. A typical 3- points linker rating scale used for the questions. Subject rank from 1- 3 was measured as low, medium and high. Results: There were 590 subjects who answered the questionnaires, the mean age was (4.19 ± 22.84) and 60.50% of subjects were female and others male. Average rate of self-medication in this study was (41.9%) and the results showed that the prevalence was higher in female. Students get medical information through reading books (43.6%). The results also showed that there is a significant relationship between self-medication, uncertainty of medical practice, lack of time to call a doctor and easy medication. Payam Noor university students had the highest self-medication. Conclusions: in this study the prevalence of self – medication was high. According to the findings (results) of this study, teaching students to increase their medication knowledge and monitoring sales of pharmacies is necessary.