The Reasons for Self-Medication from the Perspective of Iranian Nursing Students: A Qualitative Study

Data saturation was achieved with fifteen interviews with nine women and six men, with a mean age of 26.5 ± 4.8 years. The reasons for self-medication were explained in five categories and fifteen subcategories. Some of the reasons for self-medication were having medication information, having previous experience, easy access to medicine, lack of enough time, access to medical staff, cost of a doctor's visit, inadequate respect for patient privacy, pharmaceutical advertising in the media, and information explosion. Discussion. Several factors are involved in self-medication. Given the dangers of self-medication, health policymakers must adopt strict policies for pharmacies that sell drugs without a prescription. Furthermore, it is helpful to run training courses on self-medication risks for students.