Introduction: Self-medication has become an important issue among university students. There is a trend in prevalence of self-medication. This study was aimed to 1) assess the prevalence of self-medication, 2) identify the patterns and attitudes towards self-medication practices, and 3) examine socio-demographic characteristics factors correlate of self-medication among university students in Jordan. Methods: A descriptive-correlational design and a stratification random sampling method were used. A self-administered questionnaire was used, which consists of socio-demographic characteristics, information about the patterns of self-medication, and attitudes towards self-medication practices. Results: The prevalence of self-medication was 98.4%. Painkillers (paracetamol and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory), antibiotics, and herbals were the most commonly used medicines. Pain (e.g., a headache, toothache, muscle, joint, and abdomen) was the most common symptoms of practicing self-medication. Previous experience, emergency situation, and minor diseases were the main reasons for self-medication use. Pharmacists, family, and physicians were the major sources of drug information for self-medication. Students had high positive attitudes towards self-medication and had awareness of adverse effects of medicines. There was a relationship between gender, health status, and self-medication. Conclusions: The results of the study could help to develop strategies and strong policies to promote the logical use of medicine among university students. The university should develop education and prevention measures and implement a self-medication program based on students’ attitudes towards self-medication. Drug regulatory and health authorities should enforce restrict application of rules regarding selling and purchasing of self-medication, and design messages targeting to raise awareness regarding the hazards of self-medication.
Self-medication

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to identify factors associated with the stages of change in medication adherence in patients with hypertension. METHODS: Participants were 323 patients with hypertension. Sociodemographic/medication-related characteristics, stages of change, processes of change, self efficacy and decisional balance were self-administered. RESULTS: Stages of change were significantly different according to gender, age, job and living arrangement. A multinominal logistic regression analysis has revealed that gender, age, living arrangement, self-liberation, and self-efficacy were significantly associated with the precontemplation stage. Age and self-liberation were significantly associated with the contemplation stage. Gender, age, living arrangement, and self-liberation were significantly associated with the preparation stage. Gender and helping relationship were significantly associated with the action stage. This model explained 52.0% of the stages of change in medication adherence. CONCLUSION: The tailored intervention strategies based on the stages of change may be needed for improving medication adherence in patients with hypertension.
Humans ; Hypertension ; Logistic Models ; Medication Adherence ; Residence Characteristics ; Self Efficacy

OBJECTIVE: Schizophrenia seriously degrades the ability to function normally in those who suffer from this disease. The purpose of this study was to develop a comprehensive online medication adherence enhancement program and to test its effectiveness among schizophrenia patients who live in community relatively neglected with few inputs or oversights from community mental health centers. METHODS: A nonequivalent control group with prepost test was employed during the study. Participants included fifty-two chronic schizophrenia patients, twentysix experimental, and a control group of twenty-six. The study variables were medication knowledge, perceived benefits, self efficacy, social support and medication compliance. RESULTS: There were significant differences between two groups in perceived benefits (F=5.67, p=0.02), self-efficacy (F=6.38, p=0.01), social support (F=14.63, p<0.001) but no significant differences in medication knowledge (F=0.82, p=0.37), and medication compliance (F=0.89, p=0.35) when the program was completed. However, medication knowledge in posttest I and posttest II which was taken after 3 months of the program were significantly increased in the experimental group (F=8.88, p<0.001). Medication adherence in posttest II was significantly increased in the experimental group (F=6.10, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The online medication adherence enhancement program for persons with schizophrenia was effective at increasing psychosocial variables such as perceived benefits, self efficacy, and social support. This program can be used for schizophrenic persons in community mental health centers, patients' homes, hospitals, and community centers.
Community Mental Health Centers ; Humans ; Medication Adherence ; Schizophrenia ; Self Efficacy

The study was conducted in 28 rural communes at 7 geographical regions, with the sample size 5579 households and population of 25243 involved. The time-serial sampling household survey was carried out with 8 cross-sectional studies during a two year period (2000-2001). The findings showed that: Self-medication was the most popular choice for sick persons, there was a progressive tendency that the more poor likely to use it than the rich (39.7% & 35.6%). The next choices were private clinics and commune health stations (CHS). Utilization of hospital care was quite low (5.2% - 11.3% for out-patients and 5.4% - 6.5% for in-patients). Inequity in health care utilization was seen in out-patients services at the hospital level, whereas it was not happened in in-patient care and at the CHS. The poor even those having health insurance used hospital care as 1/2 of the richest
Utilization ; Family Characteristics ; Self Medication ; Private Sector ; Private Practice

PURPOSE: The main purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting medication adherence and to develop an explanatory model for medication adherence in elders with chronic disease. METHOD: Empirical data were collected from 312 older adults with chronic disease and the data collect period was from August 8 to 31, 2011, and were analyzed using SPSS for Windows 19.0 program and confirmatory factor analysis with the structural equation model (SEM) procedure performed with AMOS 19.0 program. RESULTS: Results of this study showed that perceived self-efficacy was the strongest factor influencing medication adherence, and it affected also outcome expectations positively but impediments were negatively influenced by self-efficacy. Outcome expectations and impediments subsequently acted on medication adherence with the same relationship as self-efficacy. In additional results, self-efficacy and medication adherence were further significantly affected by the factors; social support, medication knowledge, and depression. CONCLUSION: These results show that nursing interventions to promote medication adherence in this population should focus on self-efficacy promotion including social support, education for delivery of medication knowledge, and reduction in depression.
Adult ; Aged ; Chronic Disease ; Depression ; Humans ; Medication Adherence ; Self Efficacy

PURPOSE: This review aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of telemonitoring (TM) in the management of children and adolescents with asthma. METHODS: We searched Ovid-MEDLINE, Ovid-EMBASE, CENTRAL (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials), CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), and 5 domestic databases to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published through December 2017. Two reviewers independently selected relevant studies, assessed methodological quality and extracted data. We performed a meta-analysis of TM versus usual care and summarized the intervention characteristics of included studies. RESULTS: Of the 3,095 articles identified, 8 RCTs (9 articles) were included in this review. The type of TM intervention of included studies was varying across studies (transmitted data, transmission frequency, data review, etc.). The pooled asthma control score was not significantly different between TM and usual care (standardized mean difference 0.04, 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.20~0.28). Another pooled analysis demonstrated no statistically significant difference in asthma exacerbation between TM and usual care (odds ratio 0.95, 95% CI 0.43~2.09). Overall, the pooled results from these studies revealed that TM did not lead to clinically significant improvements in health outcomes, but some studies in our analysis suggested that TM increased patient medication adherence and intervention adherence. CONCLUSION: The current evidence base does not demonstrate any differences between TM intervention and usual care, but TM intervention might be considered a promising strategy for the delivery of self-management support for children and adolescents with asthma. Further well-designed studies are needed to assess the effects on clinical outcomes.
Adolescent* ; Asthma* ; Child* ; Humans ; Medication Adherence ; Nursing ; Self Care ; Telemedicine

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of self management of patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes, and to investigate the factors influencing self management. METHODS: The subjects consisted of 117 diabetes patients who visited the outpatient department of a university hospital from March to August 2008. Data were collected by asking the subjects to answer a 54-item questionnaire and were analyzed using the SPSS/WIN 14.0 program. RESULTS: The total mean score of the patients in self -management was 4.38 out of 7. Medication adherence obtained the highest score under self-management, and the self-monitoring of blood glucose obtained the lowest score. Family support, self-efficacy, severity, and depression were found to be significantly correlated with self-management. In stepwise multiple regression analysis a total of 44.5% of the variance in self management was accounted for by family support, self-efficacy, severity, and depression. CONCLUSION: Therefore, a diabetic intervention program should be designed and provided for increasing family support, self efficacy, and severity and for reducing depression of patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes.
Blood Glucose ; Depression ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Humans ; Medication Adherence ; Outpatients ; Self Care ; Self Efficacy ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The purpose of this study is to describe the health care status of Korean Immigrants in New Zealand. The sample consisted of 155 Koreans who were randomly selected from the Korean Immigrants telephone book in Auckland, N.Z. They had health problems that required health management both physically(50.3%) and psychologically(70.3%). During the previous year, the average rate of medical contact with a general practitioner was 1+/-1.29 times. Korean immigrants who had health problems first attempted to resolve the problem through self medication rather than utilize health care services. They would only visit a general practitioner if they had severe subjective symptoms or no relief from self medication. Even if they think they need to visit the health care service, 41.9% of the subjects did not go back for follow-up care. Generally, the person who demonstrated positive health care behaviors was male, a college level graduate or higher, lived in N.Z. longer than 2 years, had a high score on health status by self assessment, and he placed few demands on health care services. Barriers to a healthy lifestyle are communication difficulties in expressing subjective symptoms, understanding the physician's treatment and medication plans, difficulty in accessing the appointment system, ant the high cost of service.
Ants ; Delivery of Health Care* ; Emigrants and Immigrants* ; General Practitioners ; Humans ; Life Style ; Male ; New Zealand* ; Self Medication ; Self-Assessment ; Telephone

The purpose of this study is to describe the health care status of Korean Immigrants in New Zealand. The sample consisted of 155 Koreans who were randomly selected from the Korean Immigrants telephone book in Auckland, N.Z. They had health problems that required health management both physically(50.3%) and psychologically(70.3%). During the previous year, the average rate of medical contact with a general practitioner was 1+/-1.29 times. Korean immigrants who had health problems first attempted to resolve the problem through self medication rather than utilize health care services. They would only visit a general practitioner if they had severe subjective symptoms or no relief from self medication. Even if they think they need to visit the health care service, 41.9% of the subjects did not go back for follow-up care. Generally, the person who demonstrated positive health care behaviors was male, a college level graduate or higher, lived in N.Z. longer than 2 years, had a high score on health status by self assessment, and he placed few demands on health care services. Barriers to a healthy lifestyle are communication difficulties in expressing subjective symptoms, understanding the physician's treatment and medication plans, difficulty in accessing the appointment system, ant the high cost of service.
Ants ; Delivery of Health Care* ; Emigrants and Immigrants* ; General Practitioners ; Humans ; Life Style ; Male ; New Zealand* ; Self Medication ; Self-Assessment ; Telephone

BACKGROUND: To assess the effects of mDOT implementation on sputum smear conversion for AFB (Acid fast bacilli) positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients, modified Directly Observed Treatment (mDOT) was started on October 8th 2001 at a health center in Seoul. mDOT was defined through weekly interviewing and supervising of a patient by a supervisor (doctor, nurse, or lay health worker). The sputum smear conversion of a mDOT group was compared with that of a self-medication (self) group. METHODS: This study included 52 AFB positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients registered at a health center in Seoul between October 8th 2001 and April 23rd 2002. 24 and 28 patients were enrolled in the mDOT and self medication groups, respectively. Paired (1:1) individual matching, by gender, extent of disease, relapse and age-matching variables, was performed between the two groups, resulting in 20 paired matches. This prospective study was planned as an unblinded, non-randomized quasi- experimental pilot project. Outcomes were identified from results of sputum smear examinations for AFB in both groups at 2 weeks, and 1 and 2 months. The paired matching data were analyzed using the SAS program version 8.1 by McNemar test. RESULTS: At the end of 2 weeks of treatment, the sputum smear conversion of the mDOT group was somewhat higher than that of the self medication group (78.57 vs. 50%, p-value=0.289), and after 1 month of treatment no statistically significant difference was shown between the two groups (83.33 vs. 50, p-value=0.125). At the end of 2 months of treatment (initial intensive phase), the sputum smear conversions of the mDOT and self groups were 95 and 75%, respectively (p-value=0.219). CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of mDOT did not result in clinically significant increases in the sputum smear conversion at 2 weeks, and 1 and 2 months compared with that of the self medication group. However, the increases experienced might contribute to diminishing the infectious period of AFB positive patients, and this approach may act as a guide for a specific group of patients. In this study, mDOT was performed for one hundred percent of the intensive treatment phase. It can also be an effective treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis patients, and may be useful for some high risk tuberculosis patients.
Humans ; Pilot Projects ; Prospective Studies ; Recurrence ; Self Medication ; Seoul ; Sputum* ; Tuberculosis ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary