Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Effects of COVID‑19 pandemic lockdown on medical advice seeking and medication practices of home‑bound non‑COVID patients

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

. Tanya Tandon
. Ashok Kumar Dubey
. Suparna Dubey
. Ekta Arora
. Md Nazer Hasan

Department of Pathology, School of Medical Sciences and Research, Sharda University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Many countries are implementing measures for social distancing to contain the
spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) pandemic. The Indian government also issued
an order for complete lockdown of the country, with all the nonessential services, including most of
the services for nonemergency health issues, being temporarily suspended.
OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to understand the effect of pandemic lockdown on medical
advice‑seeking behavior and the medication practices of the non‑COVID Indian patients
confined to homes, who would have normally visited the outpatient departments (OPDs) for medical
advice.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a questionnaire‑based, cross‑sectional study conducted online
during the lockdown period. The questions dealt with medical advice‑related practices, self‑medication,
the sources of medical advice, and the need to visit emergency department. Evaluation of data was
done as for descriptive studies.
RESULTS: A total of 106 people (34%) out of the 312 participants had either old or new health
problems. Ninety‑six of such people (90.5%) tried to manage their sufferings by either continuing
the drugs prescribed earlier or by making phone calls to doctors along with taking the help of home
remedies, if needed. Ten (9.5%) of the symptomatic participants did not consult any doctor waiting
for natural course of relief. None of the participants practiced self‑medication of modern medicine
therapy. Only one participant (of the total 312) took hydroxychloroquine as self‑medication for assumed
prophylactic therapy against the COVID‑19 infection.
CONCLUSION: Most of the people with medical conditions, confined at home due to national
lockdown, are coping with their problems without any irrational self‑medication with modern medicines
or any misuse of prophylactic therapy against the COVID infection. This seemingly positive trend may
also have been due to the strict enforcement of the lockdown rules by the law enforcement agencies.

Keywords

COVID‑19
medical advice
self‑medication
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Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 11, Issue 1
January 2021
Pages 1-5

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