Prevalence and determinants of self medication use among the adult population residing in a sub urban areas near Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Background: Self-medication in urban population seems to increase but the available information is scarce. It is essential to generate evidence regarding the burden and determinants to plan for a public health intervention to address this problem. Our study is an attempt to ascertain the research may show the prevalence and determinants of self-medication among adults population of urban Tamil Nadu. Methods: A community-based cross sectional study was conducted among 408 adults residing in a sub urban areas near Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Probability proportionate to size of sampling technique (PPS) was used to decide the number of adults to be included in the study. House to house interview was done using a predesigned, pretested questionnaire. Informed written consent was obtained from the participants. Results: Around 132 out of 406 of our study population (32.5%, 95% CI: 27.9, 37.06) reported that they are using self-medication at least once in the past 6 months. It was found that males are 1.5 times more likely to use self-medication than females (OR: 1.58, 95% CI: 1.05, 2.39, P value: 0.036) and younger adults (age <30 years) are 55% less likely to use self-medication than the adults greater than 30 years (OR: 0.45, 95% CI: 0.28, 0.72, P value: 0.001). Conclusion: Increasing prevalence of self-medication use qualifies it to be considered as the public health problem. Gender discrimination and lack of prioritizing geriatric heath care needs in a routine health system are some of the other problems identified. These problems have to be addressed by the public health planners and policy makers to provide equitable and quality health care.

Self-medication practices among adults of north Karnataka

“…However, a study done by Ahmad et al found contrary results which can be attributed to the distribution of participants. 5 It was found that 54% and 41.4% of the participants from rural and urban Dharwad respectively belonged to less than 30 years of age which was similar to study conducted by Shalini et al 6 This might be due to the increased access to information on internet and social media among younger generation. Most of the participants from the rural setup belonged to class 5 and we found significant association between socio-economic status of the participants and their self-medicating behavior which was Similar to study conducted by Biradar et al 7 Majority of our study subjects procured drugs from pharmacy by explaining their symptoms and their main source of information on drug usage was pharmacist.…”

Self-medication prevalence and associated factors among adult population in Northern India: A community-based cross-sectional study

“…The SM prevalence was 66% in this study, which is higher than the pooled prevalence (53.57%) reported in a meta-analysis by Rashid et al 5 Other studies done in Andhra Pradesh (68.1%), Delhi (92.8%), Rajasthan (73.6%), and Maharashtra (81.5%) reported high SM prevalence, 13 – 16 while studies done in Uttar Pradesh (50%), Puducherry (11.9%), and Chennai (32.5%) reported a relatively lower prevalence. 12 , 13 , 17 This difference in SM prevalence may be attributed to recall periods employed for SM practice, with some studies using 1 month and others using 1 year. In our study, the SM prevalence was much higher in urban areas compared to rural areas.…”

Self-Medication Practices among Adult Population in Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…For example, in the West, 70.1% of Americans [ 6 ], 16.1% of Brazilians [ 7 ], and 69.2% of Italians [ 8 ] self-medicate. Meanwhile, in Asia, 32.5% of Indians [ 9 ], 84.8% of Pakistanis [ 10 ], and 38.2% of Nepalis [ 11 ] self-medicate. In Bangladesh, a recent study found that SM is common among the higher-educated population in metropolitan areas (16–81%) [ 12 ].…”