Characteristics and factors associated with self-medication due to COVID-19 in students of a Peruvian University

Abstract

Introduction: The university population may be vulnerable to self-medication due to COVID-19 due to their greater exposure to social networks and their tendency to imitate self-medication practices of their social environment.

Objective: Assess the characteristics and factors associated with self-medication due to COVID-19 in undergraduate university students of a Peruvian university.

Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study (October 1st to November 14, 2020) in which 166 surveys were analyzed among students of the National University of Central Peru selected through a probabilistic sampling stratified by faculties. The factors associated with self-medication were evaluated by Poisson regression of robust variances, in this way the prevalence ratios and corresponding confidence intervals were obtained.

Results: 14.5% of the students self-medicated due to COVID-19 and the main reasons were sore throat (45.8%), fever (37.5%) and disease prevention (29.2%). The most commonly used drugs were paracetamol (70.8%), aspirin (62.5%) and influenza drugs (62.5%). Some participants (20.8%) reported experiencing side effects after taking medications such as aspirin, ivermectin, dexamethasone, and chlorine dioxide. The perception that self-medication is harmful to health (PR: 0.41; CI: 0.20-0.84) and having doctors as a source of drug information (PR: 0.46; CI: 0.21-0.99) were associated with self-medication due to COVID-19. Approximately 15 out of every 100 students in the studied population self-medicated due to COVID-19. Likewise, those who perceived self-medication as harmful to health and who had doctors as a source of drug information self-medicated less.

Conclusions: The results allow us to characterize the problem of self-medication due to COVID-19 in university students, while offering information for the approach of strategies that reduce its negative impact.