EFFECTIVENESS OF INFORMATION, EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION (IEC) PACKAGE ON KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE REGARDING OVER THE COUNTER (OTC) DRUGS AMONG ADULTS

ABSTRACT Self medication is one of the major reasons for the irrational use of medicines. Globally, self medication practices are more frequently observed for the Over The Counter (OTC) medicines (WHO, 1998). OTC drugs are drugs that do NOT require a doctor's prescription, bought off-the-shelf in stores and regulated by FDA through OTC Drug monographs (FDA, 2018). The research design used for this study was True experimental – repeated measures design. 100 adults were selected based on inclusive criteria (experimental group-50 and control group-50) through probability Two stage cluster sampling technique. The pretest was conducted with the help of structured interview schedule to assess the knowledge and attitude in both group. After pretest IEC package on awareness of OTC drugs was provided in experimental group through Lecture cum discussion for 10 persons in each group followed by post test was conducted. The result showed that the effect of IEC package on level of knowledge in experimental group was F (2, 147) = 261.24, p = .000 and in control group was F (2, 147) = 1.02, p = .360 and level of attitude in experimental group was F (2, 147) = 551.21, p = .000 and in control group was F (2, 147) = 2.76, p = .066. There was significant difference between the pretest & posttest level of knowledge and attitude among adults in the experimental and control group. The study concluded that a significant number of adults are unaware of the adverse effects of the medication that they themselves take and suggest to others. Potential problems of inappropriate use of OTC drugs should be emphasized by using IEC package to minimize the risk.