Self medication is defined as the consumption of medicinal products with the purpose of treating diseases or symptoms, or even promoting health, without the prescription provided by medical professional [1].

Number of reasons could be there for the rise of self medication, one of the being the increase in chronic diseases as their incidence has risen from 30% - 80 % in last forty years. Other reasons which are responsible for self medication in developing countries are emerge of self care, feeling of sympathy towards family members in sickness, lack of health services, poverty, ‘ignorance misbelieves, extensive advertisement, and open markets [2].

Inappropriate self medication results in irrational use of drugs, wastage of resources, increase resistance of pathogens and health hazards like prolonged suffering and if action is not taken the danger of danger of drug interaction and drug resistance will increase [3].

WHO defines Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is resistance of a microorganism to an antimicrobial medicine to which it was previously sensitive. Resistant organisms (they include bacteria, viruses and some parasites) are able to withstand attack by antimicrobial medicines, such as antibiotics, antiviral, and antimalarials, so that standard treatments become ineffective and infections persist and may spread to others. AMR is a consequence of the use, particularly the misuse, of antimicrobial medicines and develops when a microorganism mutates or acquires a resistance gene, about 440 000 new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) emerge annually, causing at least 150 000 deaths. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) has been reported in 64 countries, Resistance to earlier generation antimalarials medicines such as chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine is widespread in most malaria-endemic countries. A high percentage of hospital-acquired infections are caused by highly resistant bacteria such as methicillin-resistant /Staphylococcus Aureus/ (MRSA). *Inappropriate and irrational use of antimicrobial medicines provides favorable conditions for resistant microorganisms to emerge, spread and persist in VIEW OF THIS WHO declared theme of World heath day 2011 as “Act today against microbial resistance.” [4].

Table-1: Educational status of the participants.

graph 2 shows 51(40.47%) participants admitted that they were storing some medicine at home which can be used whenever needed.

Graph 2: Distribution of the participants whether storing medicine at home or not

Graph 3: Type of Medicines known to participant.

when asked about the medicines known to all of them them out of 126 maximum 72 participants answered antipyretics, followed by 21 analgesics,13 antacids,11 decongestant and only 5 answered antibiotics even if they are not having the particular medicine at home which can be purchased as per need.

Table 2: No of participants purchasing medicines without consulting doctor

(53.17%) participants answered that they are purchasing the medicines without consulting a doctor this may be mostly antipyretics and analgesics because very few in this study know antibiotics, this finding of the study is much less than the study conducted in the rural Maharashtra by VD Phalke et al while findings are comparable with the study done by Pankaj jain et al in Haryana (50.74%) and Sandip Jogdand et al [2,4,5].

50%of those purchasing medicine without prescription decide about the time and dose of the medicines as per chemist advice, followed by self decision by 24 (35.82%), this is because while purchasing medicine without prescription they are asking about the dose and directions for use if not answered then deciding on their own again this is a serious issue because they may not be taking full dose of the medicine, this finding is also similar to the results of study done by V.B phalke and durgawale where they reported 30% of participants purchasing medicine from chemist shop [2].

Most commonly used drug were antipyretics (57.14%), followed by Analgesics and Antacids16%,10% respectively and these findings are similar to the study done in imphal by kunal chakraborty and ananya chakraborty where most commonly used medications were analgesics and antipyretics (46.34%), cough syrups (19.22%), antibiotics (16.77%) and others (17.67%) [6].

In this study total 126, 54(42.85%) participants admitted that they are not completing the course of medicines prescribed to them this is again the important finding that they are not sticking to the schedule of the medicine and can cause harm to the patient as well as lead to drug resistance.

Of the total 54 stopping the medicine in between most of the participants said reoccurrence of the disease 22(40.76%), followed by fall sick again, increase in symptoms, incomplete recovery and only 2(3.7%) out of 54 uttered antibiotic resistance most of the participants were not aware of the consequences these findings are comparable with the study of Phalke et al and Jogdand et al [2,4].

This study shows Overall 23(18.25%) out of 126 were knowing about antibiotics and very few i.e only 5 (3.96%) were aware of the antibiotic resistance this may be because of low level of literacy among the participants.