ArticlePloS one2016
Antibiotic Self-Prescribing Trends, Experiences and Attitudes in Upper Respiratory Tract Infection among Pharmacy and Non-Pharmacy Students: A Study from Lahore.
Article in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 59 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trial
- Knowledge, attitude, and practices of self-medication with antibiotics among senior undergraduate pharmacy students: A cross-sectional study in Jordan.SAGE open medicine · 2025Article
- The practice of using repurposed medications as chemoprophylaxis for COVID-19 by healthcare workers in a tertiary hospital in Southern Nigeria.African health sciences · 2023Article
- Point Prevalence Survey of Antimicrobial Use in Selected Tertiary Care Hospitals of Pakistan Using WHO Methodology: Results and Inferences.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Article
- The practice of using repurposed medications as chemoprophylaxis for COVID-19 by healthcare workers in a tertiary hospital in Southern Nigeria.African health sciences · 2023Article
- The state of health in Pakistan and its provinces and territories, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.The Lancet. Global health · 2023Article
- Knowledge, attitude, perceived effectiveness and self-practice of complementary and alternative medicine: a cross-sectional comparison between medical and non-medical students of Bangladesh.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2022Article
- Knowledge, attitude, and perception of community pharmacists towards antimicrobial stewardship in Saudi Arabia: A descriptive cross-sectional study.Saudi pharmaceutical journal : SPJ : the official publication of the Saudi Pharmaceutical Society · 2022Article
- Antimicrobial and Antibiotic Resistance from the Perspective of Polish Veterinary Students: An Inter-University Study.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Article
- Assessing the Effects of Basic Medical Science Courses on the Knowledge and Attitude towards Antibiotic Usage among Pre-Professional Students in Saudi Arabia.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Exploring Nurses' Perception of Antibiotic Use and Resistance: A Qualitative Inquiry.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2021Article
- Sale of WHO AWaRe groups antibiotics without a prescription in Pakistan: a simulated client study.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2020Article
- Attitude and behavior of clinical nurse towards self-health care: a cross-sectional survey.Annals of translational medicine · 2019Article
- A cross-sectional assessment of knowledge, attitudes and self-perceived effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine among pharmacy and non-pharmacy university students.BMC complementary and alternative medicine · 2019Article
- Self-medication of antibiotics: investigating practice among university students at the Malaysian National Defence University.Infection and drug resistance · 2019Article
- University students' knowledge, attitudes, and practice regarding antibiotic use and associated factors: a cross-sectional study in the United Arab Emirates.International journal of general medicine · 2019Article
- Pattern of inappropriate antibiotic use among hospitalized patients in Pakistan: a longitudinal surveillance and implications.Antimicrobial resistance and infection control · 2019Observational
- Antimicrobial dispensing practices and determinants of antimicrobial resistance: a qualitative study among community pharmacists in Pakistan.Family medicine and community health · 2019Article
- Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice with Respect to Antibiotic Use among Chinese Medical Students: A Multicentre Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Pharmacists are the custodians of drugs; hence their education, training, behaviors and experiences would affect the future use of drugs at community and hospital pharmacies. Therefore, we aimed at evaluating the self-prescribing antibiotic trends, knowledge and attitudes among pharmacy and non-pharmacy students. We found that pharmacy students had higher risks of experiencing URIs related symptoms such as cough (RR; 1.7, p = 0.002), allergy (RR; 2.07, p = 0.03) and running nose (RR; 3.17, p<0.005), compared to non-pharmacy students -resulting in higher probabilities of selecting cough syrups (OR; 2.3, p<0.005), anti-histamines (OR; 1.8, p = 0.036) and anti-inflammatory/anti-pyretic (OR; 2.4, p<0.005) drugs. Likewise, bachelor's degree pupils (OR; 2, p = 0.045), urban area residents (OR; 2.44; p = 0.002) and pharmacy students (OR; 2.9, p<0.005) exhibited higher propensities of antibiotic self-use-notable classes include, b-lactams (45.9%) followed by macrolides (26.5%) and augmentin (28.94%), respectively. Surprisingly, pharmacy and non-pharmacy students had higher odds of using antibiotics in common cold (OR; 3.2, p<0.005) and pain (OR; 2.37, p = 0.015), respectively. Unlike non-pharmacy students, pharmacy students were likely to select alternative therapy, such as Joshanda (OR; 2.22, p = 0.011) and were well acquainted with antibiotic hazards, with 77% reduction in risk of antibiotics re-use. In conclusion, university students exhibited antibiotic self-prescribing trends in conditions that does not warrant their use, thus are irrational users. The pharmacy education confers very little benefit to rational self-prescribing practices among students, while non-pharmacy students are more vulnerable to repeated antibiotic usage. Thus, the educational and training modules should be designed for university students to disseminate targeted information regarding the potential hazards of antibiotic self-use and importance of consultation with qualified and registered medical doctor/pharmacist before starting with antibiotics.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.