Introduction:

Rational use of medications has important health implications, thereby, whenever self-medication is practiced, substantially negative health effects are generated. Objective: Herein, we sought to describe beliefs around the self-medication practice among inhabitants from 20 to 59 years of age in locality 2 of the city of Cartagena, Colombia.

Materials and Methods:

This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The study population involved 428 individuals, who were applied an instrument and whose information was analyzed through descriptive statistics.

Results and Discussion:

Of the participants surveyed, 58.6% were females, from 20 to 29 years of age (35%), with complete secondary education (29.7%), from urban background (78%), heads of household (50.2%), in common-law relationship (44.2%). Self-medication prevalence was at 89.7%. Lack of time (28.3%) and delays in medical care (22.7%) were the principal reasons for practicing it. The main influence comes from the family (49.3%). Those surveyed believe that some medications are miraculous and fast acting; the use of herbs and medicinal plants is quite common. The medications of highest consumption were those destined to pain treatment (95.1%), along with antipyretics (72.4%) and vitamins/minerals (53.7%).

Conclusions:

Self-medication was a practice widely used and disseminated within the population studied.

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