PREVALENCE AND FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE TOWARDS SELF-MEDICATION AMONG UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL STUDENTS IN GOVERNMENT MEDICAL COLLEGE, ALMORA, UTTARAKHAND

Background: The rapid development of new technology, and especially the Internet and other related communication systems, has provided new possibilities for searching any information that can be used for self-medication, also it seems that medical students having proper knowledge of medicine are very much involve in self-medication. This study therefore, intended to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, practice, and associated factors on SM among the medical students at government medical college, Almora. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on the students of phase II and phase 3 part I in the government medical college, Almora from 27^th May 2024 to 7^th June 2024. The data was collected through questionnaire circulated to concerned batch students via Google link. Results: A total 197 students were enrolled in the study, out of them, 101 were males while 96 were females. It was found that 78.7% of them, utilised self-medication in past 6 month. It was found that they had good knowledge regarding self- medication and its adverse effect. It was found that 59.2% of them used pain killer in self-medication practice. Conclusion: Given the high prevalence of self-medication among the health sciences students, training courses about the self-medication risks, more supervision over prohibition of over-the-counter drugs and adequate facilities for students’ access to medical services are suggested to be provided.