Frequency of using non-prescribed medication in Majmaah city,Saudi Arabia—A cross sectional study

Objective: to determine the frequency of using non-prescribed medication in a saudi arabian city. methods: the cross-sectional study was conducted in majmaah city,saudi arabia,from january to may 2014,and comprised adults of either gender. for data collection,a questionnaire was designed and its reliability was checked by cronbach alpha. spss 20 was used for statistical analysis. results: of the 390 respondents 276(70.8%) were males,while 114(29.2%) were females. the overall mean age was 29.90±11.56 years (range: 18-83 years). of the total,363(93.1%) were using non-prescribed medication; and 148(37.9%) said they were using the drugs as they had experienced similar symptoms before and they knew the treatment. public pharmacies were the main source for obtaining non-prescribed medication for 163(41.8%) subjects. gender and use of non-prescribed medication was significantly associated (p<0.05). conclusion: the frequency of using non-prescribed medication in majmaah city was high. pain-killers,antibiotics and antipyretics were the most used non-prescribed medications. male respondents used non-prescribed medication more than the females. © 2015,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.