Journal of

Introduction and purpose: Self-medication is a common phenomenon which frequently happening among elderly. The goal of this study was to investigate self medication and associated factors among elderly.

Materials and Methods: This descriptive study used random cluster sampling method to recruit 270 elderly living in Kermanshah city. Upon obtaining written consent form, data were collected using series of self-reported questionnaire. Face validity and content validity of the questionnaires were obtained and reliability was assessed using Cranach’s Alpha (0.85). Data was analyzed by SPSS version 20 using Kruskal-Wallis and chi-square tests

Findings: Our findings indicated that majority of elderly (90%) participated in this study practiced self-medication during the last 3 months. Analgesics, medicines for cold and herbal medicines were mostly used in self-medication. Colds, headaches and gastrointestinal problems were diseases that mostly treated by self-medication. The most important factors associated with self-medication were underestimation of the disease, belief in the safety of herbal medicines, expensive cost of medical appointment and satisfaction from previous self-medication. However, there was no significant relationships between self-medication and demographic factors including age, sex, marital status, education, job and income.

Conclusion: High prevalence of self-medication among elderly population calls for increasing their awareness on adverse consequences of self-medication. Promoting awareness  on self-medication is possible through education and health promotion.