Trends Toward Self-Medication Practices During Covid-19 In Gujranwala District

to cure self-recognized symptoms. It is also noteworthy that SM has both positive and negative aspects that affect the life of people. Objectives: To determine the occurrence, pattern, and sources of self-medication among respondents with all socioeconomic statuses and educational levels. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey on 535 residents of the targeted region was undertaken from June to November 2021 in Gujranwala district. We analyze our data by using SPSS and �nd mean values of our different variables and also �nd the frequencies and percentages the variables for achievement of our desired results. Results: As COVID-19 preventive, 44 (8.7%) respondents self-medicated with penicillin, and only 4 (0.8%) with paracetamol. When COVID-19 symptoms appeared, the pattern shifted, with azithromycin having the highest rate of self-medication of 49 (9.75%) of all drugs. When people were diagnosed with COVID-19, 12.5% used azithromycin, and 10.3% used penicillin. Conclusions: This study found a signi�cantly high level of SM among men in Gujranwala district. Analgesics, particularly paracetamol and Ibuprofen, were the most often utilized medications for SM.

ignorance, mistrust, widespread advertising and availability of medicines in addition to drug stores are responsible for the growing trend towards SM. WHO is promoting the responsible SM practices to reduce the burden on healthcare system, especially in rural areas where most of the time, the lacking of staff has been seen [2]. The SM behavior in teenagers is affected by various factors. Trend towards self-care and overcon dence in drug knowledge often serve as stimuli for SM and drug abuse. Adults not only use older prescriptions, leftover and OTC medicines but also share medicines with friends and relatives. OTC and prescription only drugs can easily be reached without the vital information about the indications and ultimately pushing them towards unnecessary risk. Although adolescents show a sense of responsibility but Trends Toward Self-Medication Practices During Covid-19

I N T R O D U C T I O N
In Gujranwala, self-medication is a prevalent practice since it offers a low-cost alternative for individuals, and it entails the incorrect and irresponsible use of medications to cure selfrecognized symptoms. It is also noteworthy that SM has both positive and negative aspects that affect the life of people. Objectives: To determine the occurrence, pattern, and sources of selfmedication among respondents with all socioeconomic statuses and educational levels. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey on 535 residents of the targeted region was undertaken from June to November 2021 in Gujranwala district. We analyze our data by using SPSS and nd mean values of our different variables and also nd the frequencies and percentages the variables for achievement of our desired results. Results: As COVID-19 preventive, 44 (8.7%) respondents self-medicated with penicillin, and only 4 (0.8%) with paracetamol. When COVID-19 symptoms appeared, the pattern shifted, with azithromycin having the highest rate of self-medication of 49 (9.75%) of all drugs. When people were diagnosed with COVID-19, 12.5% used azithromycin, and 10.3% used penicillin. Conclusions: This study found a signi cantly high level of SM among men in Gujranwala district. Analgesics, particularly paracetamol and Ibuprofen, were the most often utilized medications for SM.
collected on spreadsheet and simple descriptive statistics were applied to analyze the data and anticipate our results. By using IBM SPSS version 20 for Windows, all data were ex a m i n e d. D e s c r i pt i ve st at i st i c a l a n a l ys i s , l i ke percentages, frequencies, standard deviation, and means were used to present the descriptive result. While categorical variables were indicated as frequency with percentages, continuous variables were indicated as mean ± SD.

M E T H O D S
the risk of drug abuse and overuse associated with SM is still there. SM has major impact on health system of the entire globe. The prevalence of SM in developing countries is high as compared to developed countries; its rate is 84% in Pakistan, and 78% in Saudi Arabia [3].
The Ethical Board of the Pharmacy Department of the University of Lahore gave its approval to the study. Before collecting data, each respondent gave their verbal consent. The survey's participants were anonymized, given the freedom to respond answer whenever they wanted, while any personal data considered a secret. Every survey respondent understood the goals of the study. The administrative division of Pakistan's Punjab province is titled Gujranwala Division. It is situated in the province's northeast, covers 3,622 km2, and has an estimated 5.014 million residents. The current investigation was carried out in several areas and pharmacies. In order to explore the knowledge and use of SM, this cross-sectional online/physical sur vey used a descriptive nonexperimental research methodology. It was done from June to November 2021, at the time of the national lockdown and the increase in the number of positive COVID19 cases. The study lasted for six months (June-November 2021). The totals of 505 participants were randomly selected from various retail pharmacies in different locations. The retail pharmacies were chosen based on patient in ow. The number of respondents was determined using a 95% con dence interval with a 5% margin of error. In this study, People ranging from 18 to 60 years' male or female or any other were included with education level of secondary quali cation or above, because most of the patients belonging to this age are easy to nd, and usually do not have a severe chronic disease. It is also important to mention here that our population was not only educated people but also uneducated or with very little education. These types of people can also SM by directly telling the disease to a seller at community pharmacy or by the suggestion of their peers. Below 18 and above 60 years of age, asthmatics, and patients with severe chronic diseases were excluded from this study. People below the age of 18 are usually immature and don't answer properly to a questionnaire (due to poor power of understanding) and above 60 years of age had mostly different comorbidities. Keeping in view all these parameters, the age groups of the population were excluded from the study. A self-made questionnaire made in Google survey form was used to collect the data. It provides a fast way to create an online survey and enable us to spread it easily through different social media platforms throughout the Gujranwala district. Responses were  The survey's physical and online forms were lled out by 535 people in total. Following the exclusion of 30 respondents who did not meet the study's inclusion criteria, the remaining total number of respondents was 505. Among the total participants 302 (59.8%) were male with the mean age of 30.18 ± 9.7 years.   Sadio et al., found that prevalence of SM during COVID-19 and its associated factor that high risk to resistances the antibiotic in lome [9]. The high fatality rate and socioeconomic collapse affected the health of uninfected people because they skipped the healthcare measures, visiting clinical and hospital appointments to limit their exposure to the virus same at in over study [10]. The Spanish healthcare system, including community pharmacies, has failed to enhance the rational use of medicines as same condition in Gujranwala district [11]. The SM practices source is various community pharmacies, and recommendation from friends or previous experience [12]. SM among prospective healthcare professionals poses a severe danger to medical professionals and has the potential to publics [13]. Mudenda et al., studied the poor healthcare seeking behavior, most individual's SM using drugs that are known to be effective against malaria, the common cold, and COVID-19. Antibacterial, antimalarial, and antivirals are some of the most widely utilized drugs [14]. The study in Islamabad and Ethiopia as same result most commonly used pharmaceuticals were paracetamol and NSAIDs, with drug retail shops being the most common source of drugs for SM [15,16]. SM was not related to socioeconomic position, ethnicity, or age but it was associated with a person's educational level and antibiotic knowledge  The primary causes for drug intake for all medications were cold or u except antiviral and hydroxychloroquine. For purposes other than pain relief (4.0%) of respondents used ibuprofen. To a lesser extent, antivirals were utilized by (1%) of participants, While (1.6%) took this anti-malarial medication HCQ for different causes. The fact that people in the Gujranwala district used these medications while having no symptoms was even more alarming. As an instance, (12.7%) Antihistamine, (2.4%) Paracetamol and other drugs utilized almost the same. It must be noted that the same responder may have consumed many drugs simultaneously. Three causes for drug usage in related to COVID-19 were listed on our survey: prevention, the existence of symptoms, and veri ed cases. As COVID-19 preventive, 44 (8.7%) respondents self-medicated with penicillin, only 4 (0.8%) with paracetamol, and approximately the same amount of ibuprofen 25 (5%), and 27 (5.3%) azithromycin When COVID-19 symptoms appeared, the pattern shifted, with azithromycin being the drug with the highest SM 49 (9.75%), followed by the lowest SM of paracetamol 8 (1.6%). When people were diagnosed with COVID-19, 12.5% used azithromycin, and 10.3% used penicillin. Dextromethorphan (6.5%) and antihistamine (6.7%) were both used by nearly the same proportion of people.

C O N C L U S I O N S
This study found a signi cantly high level of SM among men in Gujranwala district. This was due to their extensive experience and education, as well as their in-depth knowledge and comprehension of illness processes and management. This enabled them to make educated about which medications to utilize for particular conditions. Analgesics, particularly paracetamol and Ibuprofen, were the most often utilized medications for SM.