fa مديريت خدمات بهداشتي و درماني Management of health care services پژوهشي Original Article <div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Background and Purpose</strong>: Self-medication is an important concern in every part of the world<strong>. </strong>The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence and to investigate the associate factors of self-medication among adults in Gorgan, north of Iran.&nbsp;<br> <strong>Materials and Methods</strong>: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among adults aged 12 years and above who were residents in Gorgan city. The participants were selected using the multi-stage cluster sampling method. SPSS Software and Pearson&#39;s chi-squared test were used for data analysis.<br> <strong>Results</strong>: A total of 592 households with 2050 respondents were visited. The prevalence of self-medication was 67.9%. A larger number of females were self-medicating (71.3%) than males (63.5%). The majority of the respondents self-medicated because of the previous use experience (59.3%). The main indication for self-medication use was headache (60.8%). &nbsp;Analgesics were the most commonly self-medicated by the respondents (83.9%). Also, 88.6% of the respondents prepared their drug from drugstores. Furthermore, there were significant differences between self-medication and demographics characteristics including gender, age group, marital status, occupation, education level and income (p<0.05).<br> <strong>Conclusion</strong>: The prevalence of self-medication especially with analgesics is relatively high among adult city-dwellers in Gorgan. So, preventive measures, such as strengthening of the communities awareness on the side effects of self-medication practice and regulation of pharmacies are very important mechanisms to decrease the practice.&nbsp;<br> &nbsp;</div> Self-medication, Adults, Prevalence, Iran, Gorgan 29 38 http://jhs.mazums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-692-2&slc_lang=fa&sid=1 Mohammad Shokrzadeh mslamuk@yahoo.com 10031947532846006064 10031947532846006064 No Faculty of Pharmacy, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran Reza Hoseinpoor hoseinpoor61@gmail.com 10031947532846006065 10031947532846006065 No Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran Danial Jafari 10031947532846006066 10031947532846006066 No Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran Jafar Jalilian jafar.alisam@gmail.com 10031947532846006067 10031947532846006067 No Faculty of Pharmacy, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran Yaghoub Shayeste shayeste.yaghoub@gmail.com 10031947532846006068 10031947532846006068 Yes Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran