Self- medication prevalence in medical students in the Eastern DR Congo, 2021

Introduction: Self-medication has become a common practice in today's society. However, all the substances used in self-medication are not without risk. The present study aims to determine the prevalence of self-medication among medical students at the Catholic University of Graben in the year 2021. Method: This was a retrospective, descriptive, cross-sectional study that was conducted in 2021 by indirect interview through a questionnaire. Data were entered and analyzed using Epi info 3.5.4 software. Result: The prevalence of self-medication in this study is 97%, or 327 out of 337 students. The male gender uses self-medication at 54% and the female at 45.9% with OR=1.77 and 95% CI=0.4903-6.3899. The age groups, from 20 to 25 and under. at age 20 representing respectively 72.2% and 19.6% of students who resorted to self-medication in our study. The circumstances that most motivated the use of self-medication are: abscess, headache, cold and cough. This study shows that pharmacies are the most important source of products used for self-medication, at 84.1%. The therapeutic classes most used in self-medication were: analgesics at 79.8% (like Paracetamol), antibiotics at 21.7% and NSAIDs (like Diclofenac and ibuprofen) at 14.5%. 89.9% of the students in our study had resorted to self-medication on their own initiative. Conclusion: It can be learned from this study that in the Faculty of Medicine of the Catholic University of Graben, self-medication is a common practice with notable abuses