Promoting Safe Medication Practices in the Classroom

Self-medication has traditionally been defined as the consumption of medicines, herbs, and home remedies on one's own initiative or on the advice of another person, without consulting a doctor. In Spain, the consumption of non-prescription drugs is quite widespread among young people, since more than half of them have used medications without a medical prescription in the last year.

This high prevalence of self-medication among Spanish youth seems to be driven by various factors that encourage this practice. These include the increase in over-the-counter medications, delays in obtaining appointments at health centers, the influence of common family self-care practices, and the population's greater knowledge of and interest in health-related issues.

Inappropriate use of medications constitutes a public health problem and can cause significant risks to users' health, such as adverse reactions, drug resistance, and complications in diagnosing diseases, since it can lead to the masking of symptoms, as well as an increase in morbidity.

However, not all self-medication practices are harmful. Responsible self-medication refers to the use of over-the-counter medications (without a prescription) to treat common and mild symptoms (e.g., fever, mild pain, colds) for a reasonable period of time (two to three days, after which a doctor should be consulted if no improvement occurs). The benefits of responsible self-medication include convenience for the patient, reinforcement of personal autonomy through self-care, reduction of healthcare professionals' workload, and decreased costs to the healthcare system. In this regard, responsible self-medication not only provides individual and collective benefits but also promotes the development of personal autonomy, a key factor influencing young people's tendency to self-medicate. Attitudes toward autonomous medication use in young people are influenced by individual variables such as emotional regulation, family habits, peer influence, quality of life, and the use of other substances.

Given that these factors-greater access to medications, delays in healthcare access, family self-care practices, and individual psychosocial characteristics-appear to drive self-medication behaviors among youth, it is hypothesized that an educational intervention developed with the support of artificial intelligence, and focused on the responsible and safe use of medications, will improve young people's knowledge and attitudes toward self-medication. By targeting both knowledge and attitudes, the intervention aims to strengthen responsible practices while fostering autonomy and informed decision-making in medication use.