<p>Self-Medication Practices among Undergraduate University Students in Northeast Ethiopia</p>

Abstract

Background: Inappropriate self-medication is a public-health problem worldwide. Major problems associated with self-medication include wastage of resources, increased resistance of pathogens, and adverse drug reactions. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess self-medication practices and associated factors among undergraduate Wollo University students in Northeast Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 341 undergraduate university students using a pretested and self-administered questionnaire from January to February 2019. Simple random sampling was used to select study participants. Data were collected using the self-administered questionnaire and analyzed with SPSS version 20. Multiple logistic regression was employed in data analysis, with P<0.05 considered statistically significant. Results: The prevalence of self-medication in this study was 64.98%. Mildness of disease (57, 34.13%) and dissatisfaction with health-care services, (44, 26.34%) were the main reasons for self-medication practice. The most common types of diseases for selfmedication were headache (80, 47.9%), gastrointestinal infections (74, 44.31%), and respiratory tract infections (48, 28.74%). Analgesics (94, 56.28%) and antibiotics (60, 35.9%) were the leading classes of medicine used in self-medication. Multivariate regression analysis indicated that agriculture students (AOR 0.163, 95% CI 0.049-0.545) were 84% less likely to practice self-medication than medicine and health-science students. Conclusion: This study revealed that self-medication practices are common among study participants and significantly associated with their field of study. Awareness promotion on the risk of inappropriate self-medication for university students is highly recommended.

Self-medication among medical students at the Copperbelt University, Zambia: A cross-sectional study

“…The drug classes that are were often used by the students in this study were analgesics (80.5%) followed by antibiotics (52.1%) and proton pump inhibitors (6.9%) were reported to have the lowest prevalence. Studies by Pirzadeh and Mostafavi ( Pirzadeh and Mostafavi, 2014 ), Zewdie ( Zewdie et al, 2020 ), and Tesfaye ( Tesfaye et al, 2020 ) also found that analgesics were mostly self-administered drugs. In contrast, the use of analgesics was higher in our study compared to these other studies.…”

Prevalence and predictors of self-medication among university students in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…In the present meta-analysis, eight Ethiopian Universities were represented. Eight of the studies were from Amhara [ 27 – 29 , 31 – 34 , 38 ], three from Oromia [ 30 , 35 , 36 ], and two from Tigray [ 24 , 37 ]. Regarding the response rate, almost all studies had a response rate of greater than 90% (Table 1 ).…”

“…To show the association between self-medication and sex of patients, eight studies [ 24 , 28 , 30 – 34 , 38 ] were selected for meta-analysis. Two studies [ 28 , 30 ] showed, there was a statistically significant association between self-medication and sex and six studies showed that there was no significant association between medication self-practice and sex of the respondents.…”

“…Eight studies [ 24 , 28 , 30 – 34 , 38 ] were included to determine the association between self-medication and year of study. Two studies [ 24 , 34 ] showed a statistically significant association between self-medication and year of study, while five studies showed no statistical significance between self-medication and year of study [ 28 , 31 – 33 , 38 ]. The pooled findings from these eight studies revealed that self-medication was not significantly associated with the year of study (OR: 0.73, 95% CI 0.44, 1.21) (Fig.…”

“…Five articles were included to examine the association between self-medication and income [ 24 , 31 , 32 , 34 , 38 ]. From those involved, two studies showed a significant association between income and self-medication [ 24 , 38 ].…”