Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Self-Medication Among Community Pharmacy Consumers' Perspectives in Derna City, Libya

Self-medication may be associated with side effects and increases the chance of drug interactions and also affects the potency of treatment and quality of life. This study aims to estimate knowledge, attitude and pharmacy practices concerning the usage of the drugs without prescription and identifying demographic factors that could influence self-medication among the consumers of community pharmacy in Derna- Libya. Cross-sectional study was conducted among 389 participants randomly selected depending on multi-stage random sampling technique. Data were collected by using a structured questionnaire distributed over 10 different regions in Derna city. This study continued over2 months, in our result 215 (55.3%) of total participant used the self medication, most of them were male, the mean age of participants was 37.40±13.190 ranged from 14 to 83 years, most of participants 179(46%) were in university level, 235(60.4%) were in low-income level and 214(55%) were employee.  In our result 111(28.5%) of participants had low level of knowledge regarding the safety of self-medication, 186 (47.8%) don’t known OTC medication and prescription only medication. Based on the attitude total score 215 participants had negative attitude toward self-medications, 159(40.9%) always purchase the medication without prescription, the most common reason for taking self-medication was that there was no need to visit the doctor for minor illness. And the most of medication dispensed without prescription were analgesics antipyretics for cases of cold and flu as well as in pain. Pharmacy practices were good, most of pharmacist provided information about drug interactions if taking this medicine without a prescription (84.6%) and did not face difficulties to find information about the medicine.