Jianxian Chen, Ghulam Murtaza, Nida Nadeem, Xiaokuai Shao, Zainab Shafique, Saeed Ahmad, Seyyeda T. Amjad, Saima Haroon, Mamoona Tanoli, Mei Zhou

A questionaire based survey study for the evaluation of knowledge of Pakistani university teachers regarding their awareness about ibuprofen as an over the counter analgesic.
2014-03-27

In recent time, due to convenient availability of number of over the counter (OTC) drugs, patients are able to treat minor ailments by themselves. The self-medicated regimen has lead to certain health problems in all age groups irrespective of their professions. People are usually unaware about the safe use of NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and currently there is no study carried out in COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Abbottabad, regarding the choice of faculty members for NSAIDs to relieve
pain and their knowledge about its safety and use. A questionnaire based survey was carried out to collect data about the choice of CIIT faculty for a specific NSAID and their cognition related to ibuprofen. Two hundred fifty faculty members (comprising of 53 pharmacy faculty members and 197 faculty members who belonged to other departments) of which 87 were females, took part in this study. Average age of participants was 34.86 ±9.02 years. Ibuprofen was the drug of choice NSAID among the participants. Four percent participants experienced pain almost every day. Analgesia was the well known indication for ibuprofen (31%) by both the groups and in general more educated and younger participants showed better apprehension related to indications. Sixty one percent participants comprising of non-pharmacy faculty were unaware of any undesirable effects and 79% (comprising of 72% pharmacists and 5% non-pharmacists) were affirmative that ibuprofen had no adverse effects. Fifteen percent participants of department other than pharmacy were not aware of any interactions of ibuprofen. 34% of participants (comprising of 32% non-pharmacists and 2% pharmacists) entrusted their physician for an analgesic. Regardless that many participants suffered from pain almost every day and their drug of choice would be ibuprofen, they had inadequate information related to the safety and use of ibuprofen.
Keywords: ibuprofen, self-medication, knowledge, survey, over the counter