Abstract

Background: Most of the peoples in Saudi Arabia can easy take medication without a prescription like over-the-counter (OTC),analgesics such as paracetamol ibuprofen and aspirin. Low knowledge about the accurate use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory,drugs medication may develop a toxicity and dangers adverse effect if they take an inaccurate dose or if they do not understand,the right way for the medicine used. Objectives: This study was performed to evaluate knowledge and attitude of analgesics,use among Saudi population.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Saudi Arabia by sending,electronic questionnaire among the population from February 2017 to March 2017. The questions were in the Arabic language,because most people in Saudi speak and understand the Arabic language. The questionnaire divided into three sections contains,11 questions about demographics of respondents, knowledge, attitude, side effect, and source of information. For data analysis,,SPSS version 18.00 was used.
Results: Total patient answer 504 were accepted mostly were a female response (69%) and,male response were 31%. Most of the answers were from Makkah (20%), Hail (18.5%), and Al Qatif (15.3%). Paracetamol,was the common analgesics used as OTC (73.4%) then Ibuprofen (13.1%). Almost 94.4% of participants use from one to two,tablets of analgesics per day. More than half (60.7%) believed that analgesics must be taken after meals. There was a significant,relationship between time of taking analgesics and source of information (P = 0.003). Conclusion: People use analgesic drugs,for many reasons such as a headache, fever, and toothache. Paracetamol was the most analgesic used to relieve the pain of Saudi,population. The pharmacist has a very important role in passing the information about analgesics use for patients.