Prescription and over-the-counter drug misuse among female students at a Saudi university

ABSTRACT

Background: Over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription drug misuse is understudied among Arab youth. We estimated the prevalence, correlates and reasons for misusing these drugs among female King Saud University students.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study in 2019, using self-administered questionnaires inquiring about lifetime, past-year, and past-month misuse, reasons for misuse and prescription drugs sources.

Results: Five-hundred and nineteen students (91.53%) responded. Lifetime OTC drug misuse was 29.09% (95% CI = 25.19%, 33.00%), while past-year and past-month misuse were 22.35% (95% CI = 18.77%, 25.93%) and 11.95% (95% CI = 9.16%, 14.74%), respectively. Lifetime prescription drug misuse was 62.24% (95% CI = 58.06%, 66.41%), whereas past-year and past-month misuse were 52.60% (95% CI = 48.31%, 56.90%) and 34.68% (95% CI = 30.59%, 38.78%), respectively. Tramadol was most commonly misused. Prescription drugs were obtained from family members. Health-college students had 13% lower odds for misusing OTC drugs (AOR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.50, 1.50), and 21% lower odds for misusing prescription drugs (AOR = 0.79, 95% CI = 0.54, 1.15), compared to non-health college students.

Conclusions: Prescription drug misuse is high among these female students. Education of students and their families about the harms of misusing these drugs is warranted.

KEYWORDS:

• Over-the-counter
• drug misuse
• substance abuse
• prescription drugs
• Saudi Arabia

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the Vice Dean for King Saud University College of Medicine Women’s Campus, Professor Fatmah Alhaidar, for her help and facilitation of student sampling and data collection. We are also thankful to the staff at King Saud University’s office of registrar for their cooperation.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.