Medication sharing behaviour among undergraduate students at UiTM Puncak Alam campus

Medication sharing behaviour, defined as the act of "giving medication to someone else ("loaning") or taking someone else's medication ("borrowing") has a great public health implication. The objective of this study were to investigate sharing medication behaviour among university students, to assess which classes of drugs that are more likely to be shared among students and to determine the socio-demographic factors associated with sharing medication behaviour among university students. Three hundred and fifty questionnaires were distributed to the students at UiTM Selangor Puncak Alam campus. In the questionnaire, they were asked to indicate whether they had previously shared medication, the types of medication shared, and their perception benefit, consequences and reasons behind medication sharing. More than half of the respondents (n= 172, 52.1 % ) admitted share their medications with others and the results revealed that females were more actively participated (n=133, 77%) in sharing medication behaviour than the males (n=39, 23%). The most common medication that being shared among students were pain medication (n=l 13, 37%) followed by cough medication (n=69, 23%) and allergic medications (n=41, 14%). The most common type of medication shared by the students was pain medication. In addition, gender was the associated factor that determine the medication sharing behaviour, where females were more likely to involve in medication sharing behaviour. It can be concluded that sharing medication behaviour was practised among students at UiTM Selangor Puncak Alam campus.