a descriptive , cross - sectional design was aimed to evaluate the awareness and self - medication practices among female students in higher educational institutions using convenient sampling method for the ease of accessibility and proximity to the researchers . the study was conducted in four higher educational institutions of selangor state ( one public university and three private universities ) , malaysia . the target sample size was 377 female students which were calculated by using raosoft sample size calculator . this sample size was calculated by keeping the population size as 20,000 , power as 80% , response distribution as 50% , while confidence interval and margin of error were set at 95% and 5% , respectively . however , by considering the response rate of 80% , a total of 472 female students were contacted to participate in this study . an initial draft of the questionnaire was designed by the authors after an extensive literature review . the questionnaire was set to collect data on demographic information , the prevalence of self - medication , awareness , and practices of self - medication among the students . this questionnaire was then subjected to content validity , for which it was sent to a panel of four subject experts who then screened the questionnaire for its relevance and significance . all the experts were academicians with teaching and/or research experience in nonprescription drugs and related courses in pharmacy and medical field . the revised version was sent to a small group of 10 students for face validity who gave their opinion on making the questionnaire more simple and brief . reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was determined by ( spss , version 20 for windows , ibm corporation , armonk , new york , usa ) . first part assessed the demographic information such as age , course of study , ethnicity , and religion . the second section explored the information about the self - medication practices such as frequency of drug use , source of drug purchase , reasons of self - care , and common medications advised for someone else . third segment of the questionnaire assessed the awareness of students regarding the safety of self - medication . data were entered into ( spss , version 20 for windows , ibm corporation , armonk , new york , usa ) . a descriptive , cross - sectional design was aimed to evaluate the awareness and self - medication practices among female students in higher educational institutions using convenient sampling method for the ease of accessibility and proximity to the researchers . the study was conducted in four higher educational institutions of selangor state ( one public university and three private universities ) , malaysia . the target sample size was 377 female students which were calculated by using raosoft sample size calculator . this sample size was calculated by keeping the population size as 20,000 , power as 80% , response distribution as 50% , while confidence interval and margin of error were set at 95% and 5% , respectively . however , by considering the response rate of 80% , a total of 472 female students were contacted to participate in this study . an initial draft of the questionnaire was designed by the authors after an extensive literature review . the questionnaire was set to collect data on demographic information , the prevalence of self - medication , awareness , and practices of self - medication among the students . this questionnaire was then subjected to content validity , for which it was sent to a panel of four subject experts who then screened the questionnaire for its relevance and significance . all the experts were academicians with teaching and/or research experience in nonprescription drugs and related courses in pharmacy and medical field . the revised version was sent to a small group of 10 students for face validity who gave their opinion on making the questionnaire more simple and brief . reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was determined by ( spss , version 20 for windows , ibm corporation , armonk , new york , usa ) . first part assessed the demographic information such as age , course of study , ethnicity , and religion . the second section explored the information about the self - medication practices such as frequency of drug use , source of drug purchase , reasons of self - care , and common medications advised for someone else . third segment of the questionnaire assessed the awareness of students regarding the safety of self - medication . data were entered into ( spss , version 20 for windows , ibm corporation , armonk , new york , usa ) . a total of 472 questionnaires were distributed to the participants , of which 461 respondents returned the questionnaire , giving a response rate of 97.66% . as three questionnaires were incomplete , participants age varied from 16 to 29 years ( mean age in years = 19.55  1.761 ) . majority of them were from health - related course ( n = 183 ; 40.0% ) . almost half of the participants were from chinese ( n = 225 ; 49.1% ) . the prevalence of self - medication among female students in higher educational institutions was found as 57.2% ( n = 262 ) . more than one - third of the respondents ( n = 146 ; 31.9% ) practiced self - medication 23 times a year , whereas less than one - fifth of the respondents ( n = 85 ; 18.6% ) self - medicated them once every few months [ table 2 ] . demographic characteristics of participants frequency of taking medications without consulting a doctor the most common source of self - prescribed medicine was a pharmacy or clinics ( n = 206 ; 45% ) . 21% participants ( n = 96 ) used medications from a stock available at their home , while 8.3% ( n = 38 ) obtained from their family or friends . other sources of medicines included a grocery store , hospital , and supermarket [ table 3 ] . the study also investigated the types of medication used for self - medication [ table 4 ] . it was found that antipyretics were the most common medications used without doctor 's consultation ( n = 212 ; 89.1% ) . vitamins were the second most commonly self - prescribed medicine ( n = 186 ; 83.4% ) , followed by eye - drops ( n = 158 ; 60.3% ) , pain killers ( n = 157 ; 59.9% ) , and herbal and/or traditional supplements ( n = 125 ; 59.9% ) . in addition , the study also investigated the frequency of use of each type of medication [ table 4 ] . vitamins were claimed to be the most frequent medicine used by female students ( n = 68 ; 26% ) , while eye - drops were reported to be the second highest frequently used therapeutic category among female students ( n = 28 ; 10.7% ) . as for the symptoms leading to self - medication , it was reported that fever , ( n = 202 ; 44.1% ) cough or cold ( n = 195 ; 42.6% ) , and pain ( n = 155 ; 33.8% ) were the most common symptoms for self - medication [ table 5 ] . other common symptoms reported were menstrual pain , diarrhea , constipation , vomiting , allergy , and indigestion . sources of medications frequencies of medicine used for self - medication symptoms leading to self - medications minor health problem was stated as the main reason for self - medication ( n = 175 ; 38.2% ) . more than one - quarter of respondents was ( n = 129 ; 28.2% ) self - medicated due to previous experience and some of respondents ( n = 129 ; 28.2% ) reported to practice self - medication because of urgent medical condition . other common reasons given were convenience , cost , time , transport , and suggestions from either a friend or a relative [ table 6 ] . reasons for practicing self - medication moreover , 70.1% students ( n = 320 ) stated that they consulted friends or relatives who were not medically qualified with regard to a health - related problem [ table 7 ] , while 38.0% ( n = 174 ) students reported that they follow the advice given by their friends or relatives . more than one - quarter students reported ( n = 126 ; 27.5% ) that they had previously advised friends and family members to take medicine . analgesics and antipyretics ( n = 79 ; 62.7% ) were reported to be the highest recommended medicine by students to their family and friends , followed by cold and flu medicine ( n = 9 , 7.1% ) , anti - allergy drugs ( n = 7 ; 5.6% ) , and cough mixture ( n = 4 ; 3.2% ) [ table 8 ] . the common reasons reported for taking medications were previous experience ( n = 102 , 81.0% ) , problem was not severe ( n = 52 ; 41.3% ) , and urgency of problem ( n = 50 ; 39.7% ) [ table 9 ] . awareness of respondents about the safety of self - medication was also investigated in this study [ table 10 ] . most respondents ( n = 331 ; 72.3% ) were well - aware about the food interactions ( n = 384 ; 83.8% ) and adverse drug reactions ( n = 399 ; 87.1% ) associated with medicines . the majority of respondents ( n = 280 ; 61.1% ) believed otc medications are as effective as prescribed medications . frequency of consulting friends / relatives with regard to health - related problem common medications advised to someone else reasons for advising one to take medicine students awareness on the safety of self - medication the study reported the moderate prevalence of self - practice medication practices among female students . however , the prevalence of self - medication among female students is reported to be higher in malaysia elsewhere . however , it is important to consider that target sample in this study was conveniently sampled , educated students from higher educational institutions and , therefore , more than half of the reported respondents practicing self - medication might be an underestimation on the prevalence of self - medication among the community . moreover , education could also be interpreted as a likely variation of results between the current study and previously published research . either a pharmacy and/or clinic were reported to be the main source for obtaining medications . this is in congruence with the findings in slovenia and ethiopia where medications were mainly procured from the pharmacy . this may explain as to why pharmacy was the main source of medicine in the current study , and one can easily locate them in closely - knitted locations in urban areas . the current research reported antipyretics , vitamins , pain killers , and traditional supplements as most common therapeutic categories for self - medication . similar findings were reported by zafar et al . in karachi , pakistan , and lucas et al . in maputa , mozambique . however , medications such as antipyretics and analgesics should be used with caution in certain groups of patients as these therapeutic categories might pose gastrointestinal problems and adverse renal effects . the current results of fever , cough , cold , and pain being the leading symptoms of self - medication are in line with the studies by zafar et al . and hassali et al . a previous study at universiti sains malaysia reported poor knowledge about the disease and its treatment , and time - saving as two major reasons for self - medication among female students . the results of current findings could be related to above - mentioned study as female students indicated minor health problems , previous experience , urgency of condition , convenience of available facilities , cost , and time - saving as reasons for practicing self - medication in this study . in recent years , national health services it is claimed that self - medication could reduce unnecessary consultation for minor ailments , consequently more time and quality of care could be spent for patients with more severe conditions . thus , self - medication for minor illnesses could be perceived as a good practice as it is most likely to reduce the burden of malaysian healthcare professionals . still , we endorse the views of eickhoff et al . in this regard who highlighted the role of pharmacists in detecting the drug - related problems associated with otc drugs and emphasized to enhanced pharmacist 's education , training , and practice in this regard . in 2007 , ministry of health and consumers association of malaysia organized a project , which was aimed to increase awareness about the rational use of medicine , and to provide consumers important information about various medications . in this study , it was surprising to discover that 38% students practice self - medication based on advised by their friends or family . therefore , awareness on safety of self - medication is rather an important issue highlighted in this study . they would read the label that comes with medication and checked the expiration date before and after purchasing it . they were also aware that certain medications might cause adverse drug reactions and interact with food or other medication . a malaysian study reported a similar result to this study , wherein consumers knew their medications well . in this study , it was observed that female students would prefer to consult a pharmacist than a doctor . it was relatively unexpected as doctors are thought to be the main preference for medicine consultation . the results indicate that the pharmacist plays a more crucial role in self - medication practice compared to a doctor . therefore , pharmacists should be encouraged to provide maximum pharmaceutical care to the patients . in this study however , few participants commented that doctors or pharmacists should be consulted at the first place because self - medication is risky and at times potentially harmful . on the contrary , respondents also viewed themselves not qualified enough to practice self - medication . they advocated that proper education pertaining to self - medication should be emphasized before launching the concept of self - medication . furthermore , not only the pharmacists but also other allied healthcare professionals , physicians should also be enlightened about the wider use of over - the - counter medication when prescribing new medications . the strength of this study is that it has focused on determining the prevalence and awareness of female students about self - medication in higher education institutes of selangor , malaysia . the findings of this study would be a valuable contribution to the existing literature as not many studies have explored the topic of self - medication among female students . furthermore , the current research confirmed the outcomes from previous studies done in developing countries , forming a strong base to design data - driven interventions to improve the practice of self - medication in malaysia . like any research , this study draws attention to some of the unavoidable constraints of research approach that have been adopted . the study was executed in only one state of malaysia using convenient sampling techniques , and therefore , the findings can not be generalized to all the female students in other states of malaysia . a large number of respondent were associated with healthcare - related courses which may have caused some bias in how they view self - medication . survey bias , intentional dishonesty on the part of respondents , and recall bias may also have affected the survey results . prevalence of self - medication was moderate among female students in the sampled higher educational institutions in selangor , malaysia . there is a need to initiate campaigns to enhance the awareness of students about self - medication practices . the role of pharmacists should be expanded to include minor illness management service in the community pharmacies .
background : world health organization has defined self - medication as the selection and use of medications ( including herbal and traditional product ) by individuals to treat self - recognized illnesses or symptoms . the prevalence of self - medication is reported to be higher among female students.objective:to investigate the awareness and self - medication practices among female students of higher education institutions in malaysia.method:a descriptive , cross - sectional study was conducted in four higher education institutes of selangor , malaysia . 
 convenience sampling approach was used to collect data from a sample 475 students . a 
 pretested  questionnaire was used as a study instrument.results:a total of 461 questionnaires were returned ( response rate 97.05% ) . 
 the prevalence of self - medication among female students in higher educational institutions was 57.2% ( n = 262 ) . 
 the most common source of self - prescribed medicine was a pharmacy or clinics ( n = 206 ; 45% ) . 
 it was found that antipyretics were the most common medications used without doctor 's consultation ( n = 212 ; 89.1% ) . 
 analgesics and antipyretics ( n = 79 ; 62.7% ) were highly recommended by students to their family and friends . 
 the common reason for self - medication was prior successful experience ( n = 102 , 81.0% ) . 
 the majority of respondents ( n = 280 ; 61.1% ) reported that they believed over - the - counter medications were as effective as medications prescribed by a doctor.conclusion:the prevalence of self - medication practice among female students in the sample of the four higher education institutions was moderate . 
 more studies are required to generalize these findings across malaysia .