Effectiveness of Self-instructional Modules on Knowledge Regarding Side-effects of Self-medication among Adolescents

Abstract

Introduction: Self-medication is an old practice and may be defined as drug acquisition and consumption without physician’s advice either for diagnosis, prescription, or treatment monitoring. Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of self-instructional module on knowledge and side-effects regarding self-medication among adolescents. Materials and Methods: The present study with pre and post-test design was conducted on 70 adolescents selected from Wardha, Maharashtra, India. The adolescents were selected based on non probability convenient sampling technique. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Paired t-test was used to compute the mean, Standard Deviation (SD) and mean percentages. The unpaired t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to associate the demographic variables with level of knowledge. Results: Majority of the subjects were in the age group of 17 years and were females. Pre-test mean score was 10.91 and post-test mean score was 9.03. The effectiveness of the self-instructional modules on the knowledge regarding side-effects of self-medication was statistically significant (p=0.034). Conclusion: The current study revealed that a self-instructional module as a teaching on side-effects of self-medication effectively improved the knowledge level of adolescents.