Young educated adult awareness regarding drug utilization and chemical composition during pregnancy

Abstract

Pregnancy is a unique biological condition where medicine intake makes people worry because of the changing pharmacokinetics and medication crossing the placenta, which may cause impairment to the growing fetus. However, treatment and medication during the prenatal period cannot be completely avoided because many pregnant ladies may have chronic medical conditions that need uninterrupted medication, some of whom had serious medical complications related to pregnancy. Neglect in controlling these conditions may possibly affect the mother and the infant's wellbeing. To assess medication-related awareness and beliefs in general and during pregnancy among King Faisal University female students. It also determines the perception of the students regarding drug utilization and chemical composition. Prospective descriptive study design was used. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to (400) students in both medical and non-medical colleges. Out of 400 students who took the questionnaire only (371) returned the completely filled out questionnaire, resulting in the response rate of 92.8%. The mean age of the respondents was 21.34. Out of the total respondents, (66%) were from non-medical colleges. More than one-tenth of the respondents (15.9%) were pregnant. More than one-third of the respondents (36.4%) took medication during pregnancy. For the type of medication used during pregnancy, 37.8 of them used the most frequently prescribed drugs during pregnancy, including vitamins, iron, folic acid, and calcium supplements. The result also shows that (85.5%) of respondents believed that pregnant women should read the medicine composition. Some respondents (37.2%) believed that doctors prescribe too many medicines, while almost half of them (46.4%) disagreed with this. Also, (22.7%) of the participants disagreed about reading the chemical composition of medicine before using it. There is a lack of essential knowledge on the safety of drug utilization towards both mother and growing fetus during prenatal period among King Faisal University female students.