Introduction:

Over-the-counter (OTC) medications are widely used worldwide, however they are responsibly used only in countries with legalized professional community pharmacies.

Objective:

To describe over-the-counter medication use habits in university students from health programs.

Materials and methods:

Descriptive cross-sectional study carried out in three universities from Cartagena. A survey-type instrument was applied to 140 students, asking about their use habits and knowledge regarding OTC, beliefs, attitudes and practices.

Results:

The questionnaire showed a high internal inconsistency, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.77. 59% of participants were women aged between 16 to 30 years old and 91% agreed that self-medication is harmful. Nevertheless, 61% self-medicated because of minor and frequent conditions. OTC medications with the highest use were acetaminophen (52.9%) and NSAIDs (16.48%).

Conclusions:

Even though students are aware of the self-medication risks, they still practice it frequently. Many participants reported the use of medications such as amitriptyline, antibiotics, opioids, furosemide, and corticosteroids.

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