PREVALENCE AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS OF SLEEPING PILLS USE AMONG STUDENTS IN A MALAYSIAN UNIVERSITY

Objective: this paper aimed to determine the prevalence of sleeping pills use among university students and its associated factors in malaysia. methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted in january 2010 among 200 students from management and science university (msu), shah alam, malaysia. the survey was conducted by distributing self-administered questionnaires. the questionnaire was developed based on the literature review. the students were chosen randomly using convenience sampling. results: a total of 200 university students participated in this study. the prevalence of using sleeping pills among university students is 7.5%. the majority of the participants were malay 146 (73.0%), from urban area 169 (84.5%), from medical and health sciences background 101 (50.5%). this study showed that there is a significant relationship between using sleeping pills and depression (p= 0.03). there is also a significant relationship between using sleeping pills and inducing sleep by reading (p=0.04). conclusion: the prevalence of sleeping pills usage among university students is relatively high. this study showed that there is a significant relationship between using sleeping pills and depression