Perception of the severity of clinical symptoms and self-medication among university students

Abstract

Introduction: Self-medication is a frequently used strategy in response to disconfort or illness. It plays an important role in the initial access to primary care; although this is not recognized. The objective of the present study was to analize self-medication from the perspective of the social actors themselves.

Material and Methods: A qualitative methodology was used among university students from the Faculty of Medicine; Universidad Nacional del Nordeste in Corrientes; Argentina; during 2013. The Constant Comparative Method of Glaser and Strauss was used. The data was collected through in depth semi-structured interviews. Spiral analysis was applied; generating categories supported by textual fragments from the interviews.

Results: We found university students feel safe and able to self-medicate for clinical symptoms of low complexity; and symptoms previously experienced by themselves; or by relatives and acquaintances.

Discusion: Feeling ill is an experience inseparable from the personality and biography of the individual. The answer to illness is an inherited knowledge of the epigenetic or formative history that gets forgotten when it falls into immediacy.