Abstract

PREVALENCE OF ANALGESIC USE AMONG GENERAL POPULATION IN BURAIDAH CITY, AL QASSIM PROVINCE

Dr. Salah Mahmoud Al-Abbasi and Dr. K. Chandra Sekhar*

Abstract

Introduction: The incidence of analgesic use has significantly increased in the past three decades in both developed and developing countries. One of the most common reasons is taking a prescribed and non-prescribed medicine to relieve or treat pain and their symptoms and it has been reported that non-prescribed and improper use of analgesics has reached worrisome levels. The objective of the study is to determine the analgesic prevalence, source of information, knowledge and attitude of analgesic use among the study population. Methodology: A Cross-sectional study was performed on 400 participants of general population in Buraidah city, Al Qassim province through a Questionnaire which was adapted, modified from pervious study and translated to Arabic and distributed randomly. Data entered and analyzed with Statistical package for Social sciences and necessary statistical tests were applied. Results: In the present study among 400 study participants, 217 (54.2%) were males and 183 (45.8%) were females and the mean age of the participants and standard deviation was 36.26 ± 11.25 years. In the present study, about 74.5% were taking analgesics without prescription. The most commonly used OTC analgesics was paracetamol, and these drugs were more commonly used by the age group 31-40 years. There was highly significant relation between analgesic use and frequency of analgesic use per week (P

Keywords: Analgesics, OTC, Prescription, Knowledge, Attitude, self-medication, Al Qassim.