Prevalence and Pattern of Self-Medication for Melasma among University Students: A Cross-Sectional Survey
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65761/pjcr.2026.317Keywords:
Melasma; Self-medication; University students; Skin-lightening products; Community pharmacyAbstract
Background: Melasma is common in young women with darker skin, and the crowded market of whitening creams, steroids and herbal products makes it a natural target for self-medication. How students manage the condition, and how safely, is poorly documented in Pakistan. We measured the prevalence and patterns of self-medication for melasma, and the attitudes surrounding it, among university students.
Methods: In a cross-sectional survey across South Punjab (July-August 2025), 438 students completed a self-administered questionnaire covering demographics, melasma awareness and experience, treatment-seeking, products used, side effects, and attitudes. We analysed responses in SPSS using descriptive statistics.
Results: Most respondents were women (64.2%), aged 18-23 (85.6%), and enrolled in health-sciences faculties (89.0%). Awareness of melasma was high (82.6%), most often acquired from the internet or social media (34.0%), yet only 24.7% had ever been formally diagnosed. Among those who acted, fewer than half sought help (45.0%); dermatologists were the most common first contact (59.6%), but pharmacies supplied most self-medication (54.8%), and about 30% used prescription-type products without a prescription. Reported agents included vitamins (25.5%), hydroquinone (14.1%), organic acids (12.9%) and retinoids (9.2%); roughly half tried home remedies. Self-medication caused side effects in 22.7%. Despite this, 74.8% considered dermatologist consultation necessary and 71.9% backed awareness campaigns.
Conclusion: Awareness of melasma was high but rarely translated into supervised care. Self-management was pharmacy-driven and frequently unsupervised, with a meaningful side-effect burden. This gap between knowledge and safe practice is one community pharmacists are well placed to close.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Shakeel Ijaz, Sana Yousaf, Aousaf Ahmad, Farheen Zia, Insha Akram, Aimen Arshad, Iqra Afzal, Asma Iftikhar, Shanza Zafar, Usama Rehman, Nisha Khalid
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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
