Tendency of Self-Medication among Various Malaysian Ethnicities

Aims: Self-medication has been observed in all kinds of societies regardless of region, religion, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. It is practiced by individuals as part of self-care for preventing or curing diseases. The main objective of this study is to assess the number of individuals involved in usage of over the counter drugs in Malaysia; as well as to assess if certain races in Malaysian population are more inclined towards the use of medication without prescription.

Study Design: Cross sectional descriptive study.

Methodology: A number of patients selected randomly from the outpatient department of SEGi University hospital, Malaysia participated in the study. Data was collected using a simple questionnaire. A total of 315 patients (166 male and 159 female) participated in the research and completed the designed questionnaire. The data collected was analyzed statistically using SPSS 20.0; appropriate statistical tests (Chi-Square and Fisher exact test) were applied. The P value (<0.01) was considered significant.

Results: In total, self-medication was practiced by 16.2% of participants. The trend was slightly higher in males (9.2%) than female participants (6.99%). Regarding ethnicity, the highest tendency was reported by patients of Indian origin. In Malaysian population, herbal medications were the most popular (66.66%), for the purpose of self-medication followed by allopathic drugs (22.22%). Considering the types of allopathic medications, oral analgesics remain the most popular drugs (60.56%) for self-medication among patient of all ethnicities.

Conclusion: The trend of self- medication is relatively less popular among Malaysians. However, a few individuals reported of practicing self-medication occasionally.