<p>Self-Medication Practices and Associated Factors Among Health-Care Professionals in Selected Hospitals of Western Ethiopia</p>

Abstract

Background: Even though the type, extent and reasons for self-medication practice (SMP) vary, globally self-medication (SM) is rising to relieve burdens on health services. However, inappropriate SMP results in economic wastes, damage of vital organs, incorrect therapy selection, risk of adverse drug reactions and development of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. These consequences have severe implications including legal, ethical and quality of health-care delivery. Temporal increment and high prevalence of SM among health professionals is also a major bottleneck for Ethiopia. Hence, the study aimed to assess the SM among health-care professionals (HCPs) in selected governmental hospitals of Western Ethiopia. Methods: An instiution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 338 HCPs using a pre-tested and self-adminstered questionnaries from March 1 to 25, 2018. Simple random sampling was used to select study participants and SMP (yes or no) was the outcome of the study variable. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Crude and adjusted odds ratios (95% CI) were calculated and all results were deemed to be statistically significant when p < 0.05. Results: Among the 338 participants, 184 (54.4%) were females and the mean age of the study participants was 25±3.23 years. About 154 (45.6%) of them had work experience of less than 5 years and 49.7% were nurses by profession. The prevalence of SM was 73.4% with 3 months of recall for SM. Familiarity with medicines and ailments (46.8%) and mildness of illness (40.7%) were the most common reasons to self-medicate. The most frequently reported ailments were headache (37.1%) and gastric pain (29.8%). Analgesics (44.4%) and antibiotics (42.7%) were the most commonly used self-medicated categories of drugs. Female sex (Adjusted odds ratio [AOR] =2.13, 95% CI: 1.43-8.66), age 20-29 years (AOR=4.53, 95% CI: 1.01-14.45) and work experience of <5 years (AOR= 3.01, 95% CI: 1.32-11.71) were significantly associated with SMPs. Conclusion: The study revealed a high prevalence of SMP among HCPs. Sex, age, and work experience were significantly associated with SMPs. Hence, the use of prescription drugs without prescription should be discouraged and appropriate health education should be provided by all concerned bodies on the proper use of drugs.

Self-Medication Practice and Associated Factors Among Health Care Professionals at Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia

“…18 As a result, the impact of the problem of self-medication among the health care profession is severe. 7,15 In the present study, only profession was significantly associated with self-medication and pharmacy professionals were nearly 12 folds to practice self-medication than other health professionals (AOR: 11.88). This was attributed to poor attitude, a better access to pharmaceuticals and loose regulatory system.…”

“…12,13 The type and extent of self-medication and the reasons vary from country to country. 14,15 In developing countries, self-medication is widely practiced due to poor professional control of pharmaceutical products. 16 Health professionals' knowledge about drugs, diseases, and their health problem was the reasons for selfmedication.…”

“…The impact of the problem of self-medication practices worsens among health care professionals as it is highly prone to inappropriate use. 7 , 15 Incorrect dosage, prolonged duration of use, wastage of resources, increased resistance to pathogens, 18 adverse reactions, incorrect self-diagnosis, delays in seeking appropriate care, drug interactions, risk of dependence, drug abuse, 8 and drug toxicity 12 were associated with self-medication. A worldwide concern, the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of micro-organisms might have been highly augmented by self-medication.…”

Non-prescribed drug use and predictors among pregnant women in Ethiopia: systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Subsequently, a total of 18 full-text papers were assessed for eligibility on the basis of the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Thus, seven studies were excluded due to population difference [38][39][40][41][42][43][44].…”

Self-medication among health care workers in a tertiary hospital in Southern Nigeria: knowledge, attitude, and practices

“…[6][7][8] Prevalence of self-medication was 77.6% among health professions in Malaysia, 5 67.5% in Ethiopia, 7 52.1% in South West Nigeria, 9 and 73.4% in Western Ethiopia. 10 Self-medication among HCWs is associated with unethical practices, the risk of misuse of addicting drugs, such as opiates and benzodiazepines, and untoward effects on the patient and quality of care delivered. 5,11,12 Self-medication among HCWs is generally underresearched in low-income countries.…”