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Table of Content Volume 13 Issue 3 - March 2020
A study knowledge and practice of self-Medication for acne among college students in Hubli
Manjunath S Nekar1, Maneesha Godbole2*, D D Bant3
1,2Assistant professor, 3Professor & HOD, Department of Community Medicine, KIMS, Hubli, Karnataka, INDIA.
Abstract Background: Acne is one of the most common disorders encountered among adults. It is well established as a disfiguring disease state with significant loss of self-esteem, social embarrassment, social withdrawal and depression. Quality of life is negatively affected in many patients. The social, psychological and emotional impact of acne, make it a disease to be taken far more seriously than just a cosmetic disability. Objective: To determine the prevalence, thoughts, practices and effects of self-medication for acne among college students Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted at Karnataka institute of Medical Sciences from June 2013 to July 2013. The students of P U College and Degree Colleges in the city of Hubli were included in the study. By purposive sampling, a total of 384 subjects were taken into the study. Results: Majority of the students were in the age group of 16-18 years (75.8%) followed by 20-22 years (13.8%). Nearly 201 (52.3%) were males and 183 (47.7%) were Females in our study. Among the subjects, 65.6% felt that face is the most commonly affected part .62.5 % of the students opine that acne is most common in age group of 16-20 years. Nearly 27.9 % of the students were not confident about the self-medication they were taking chance and 24.7% were fairly confident. Conclusion: This study reveals that acne is still a common occurrence and students have little knowledge about its treatment. Awareness programmers should be held in schools and colleges to impart the knowledge about acne, its pathology, treatment options and hazards of self-medication. Key Words: Acne, Self-Medication, College students, Cosmetic, Quality of Life.
INTRODUCTION Acne is one of the most common disorders encountered among adults. It is well established as a disfiguring disease state with significant loss of self-esteem, social embarrassment, social withdrawal and depression. Quality of life is negatively affected in many patients. The social, psychological and emotional impact of acne, make it a disease to be taken far more seriously than just a cosmetic disability. 1 Acne develops as a result of blockages in the follicles. Hyper keratinization and formation of a plug of keratin and sebum (a microcomedo) is the earliest change. Enlargement of sebaceous glands and an increase in sebum production occur with increased androgen (DHEA-S) production at adrenarche. The microcomedo may enlarge to form an open comedo (blackhead) or closed comedo. Comedones are the direct result of sebaceous glands' becoming clogged with sebum, a naturally occurring oil, and dead skin cells. In these conditions, the naturally occurring largely commensal bacterium Propionibacterium acnes can cause inflammation, leading to inflammatory lesions (papules, infected pustules, or nodules) in the dermis around the microcomedo or comedone, which results in redness and may result in scarring or hyperpigmentation.2,3 The term ‘self-medication’ is defined as the use of non-prescription medicines under an individual’s own initiative. It is generally referring to use of non-prescriptive medicines, usually over-the-counter drugs(OTC)to treat a certain minor ailment, by the patient themselves without consulting a medical practitioner and without any medical supervision. Self-medication is a norm in our country. One factor probably contributing to this phenomenon is over the counter sale of almost all medication without any prescription.4 In practice, we frequently encounter patients with acne deteriorated by topical use of self-medication. Even though acne is a very common problem, there are a lot of myths associated with acne, its cause, exacerbating and relieving factors, and its association with certain foods, cosmetic products and general hygiene.3 Such wrong believes lead to delayed treatment, mismanagement of problem. Therefore, studying the prevalent myths, how they affect the general management and planning the ways to reduce misconceptions about acne among general population achieves significance. Objective: To determine the prevalence, thoughts, practices and effects of self-medication for acne among college students MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross sectional study was conducted at Karnataka institute of Medical Sciences from June 2013 to July 2013. The students of P U College and Degree Colleges in the city of Hubli were included in the study. By purposive sampling, a total of 384 subjects were taken into the study from following colleges
Data was collected in a pretested and Semi Structure Questionnaire by the investigator by interview technique. The college was visited after obtaining permission from the Principal of the college and the data was collected from the students who were present in the college on the day of interview.
RESULTS A total of 384 students were interviewed and data was collected from the students and analyzed.
Table 1: Social Profile of the students
Majority of the students were in the age group of 16-18 years (75.8%) followed by 20-22 years (13.8%). Nearly 201 (52.3%) were males and 183 (47.7%) were Females in our study. All the students were from Urban area in our study.
Table 2: Knowledge of students about acne
Among the subjects, 65.6% felt that face is the most commonly affected part and 24% of them were of the opinion that all the above mentioned parts of the body can be affected 62.5% of the students opine that acne is most common in age group of 16-20 year. 52.6% of the students attributed hormonal changes as the main cause of acne. Infection is another important cause according to 21.9% students. Table 3: Opinion of students on few aspects about acne
Table 4: Responses of students on self-medication
Table 5: Confidence in self- medication
Nearly 27.9 % of the students were not confident about the self-medication they were taking chance and 24.7% were fairly confident.
DISCUSSION Acne is a very common condition. This study supports the already known fact that acne is common problem for adults. Regarding the beliefs about the acne, our study shows that hormones (52.6%) were accurately identified by majority of the students as a causal factor of acne followed by infection (22%) but familial disease was not clearly identified as was found in study in UK 5 where 81% of variance of the disease was attributable to genetic factors and only 19% to environmental factors. In the study done in Faisalabad 6 the age group of the study subjects were similar to our study findings which confirms the prevalence of acne in these age group across the world. Increasing incidence of self-medication has been documented throughout the world by the large population based studies and national health survey. We have very little data if at all to document this trend in our population. The results have shown an alarmingly high incidence of self-medication (92%). This is much higher than (77%) reported in similar study on acne patients in other studies.6,7,8 A population based study in Spain revealed a 12.3% incidence of self-medication for dermatologic problem.9 In the study done on students is Sind Medical College, Karachi 10 also obtained similar results regarding using of Self-medication for the treatment of acne The likely explanation for this high incidence among the students in our study is probably the lack of regulation on over the counter sale of medication. The result of this study showed that unfortunately a significant number of students felt that frequent face washing did relieve acne which may be due to misconception that washing face frequently will keep the skin clean and free of oil and dirt, however Kimball et al. suggested in his paper that washing the face more often does not significantly improve acne.11,12,13
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS This study reveals that acne is still a common occurrence and students have little knowledge about its treatment. Further studies are required to highlight this situation and steps should be taken to impart more rational knowledge among the students. Awareness programmers should be held in schools and colleges to impart the knowledge about acne, its pathology, treatment options and hazards of self-medication. Further studies are required to highlight the situation and steps should be taken to impart more dermatologic knowledge among general public. Over the counter sale of drugs should be strictly regulated to reduce dispensing of drugs without proper prescription.
REFERENCES
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