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

Abstract

Background Self-medication is a common practice and cause for concern globally. There is a paucity of information regarding students’ self‑medication in Zambia. Therefore, this study aimed at determining the self‑medication practices among the medical students at Copperbelt University. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 334 students. Data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire, entered in excel, cleaned, and exported to SPSS version 21 for statistical analysis. Univariate analysis using Chi-Square or Fishers Exact test was performed. Independent predictors of self-medication practices were determined using logistic regression. Adjusted Odds ratios (AOR) and their 95% confidence intervals are reported. Results A total of 334 medical students, with slightly more females (50.3%, n = 168), participated in the study. Of these 61.1% (n = 204) reported self-medicating. Reasons for self-medicating were the presence of long queues at health facilities and lack of time to visit the hospital. Only the year of study was independently associated with self-medicating with those in their 4th year of study being more likely to self-medicate [AOR:3.43, 95% CI: 1.52–7.73]. Conclusion Students should be educated on the consequences of self-medication practices especially the rational use of antibiotics.

Prevalence of Self-Medication and Associated Factors among Healthcare Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study at the University of Zambia

“…The prevalence of SM found in our study is higher than the 61.1% that was reported in an earlier study among medical students at the Copperbelt University in Zambia (Banda et al, 2021), 76.8% in Nigeria (Asekun-Olarinmoye et al, 2019, 78% in Sri Lanka (Subashini & Udayanga, 2020), 71.7% in India (Ka-sulkar & Gupta, 2015), 64.98% in Ethiopia (Zewdie et al, 2020), 62.5% among University students in Iran (Delam et al, 2020), 54.3% in Portugal (Alves et al, 2021), 41% among pharmacy students in Zambia (Mudenda et al, 2022e), and14.5% in Peru (Rojas-Miliano et al, 2022). Our current findings indicate an increase in SM among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to two earlier studies before that pandemic that reported a prevalence of 61.1% and 41% respectively (Banda et al, 2021;Mudenda et al, 2022e). Other studies also found a high prevalence of SM among university students, including 98.2% in Saudi Arabia (Alshammari et al, 2021), 95.4% in Nepal (Shah et al, 2021), and 83% in Pakistan (Yasmin et al, 2022).…”

Attitude and Practices of self-medication among the students of Sialkot Medical College, Sialkot

“…This study showed that, 83.8% were practicing selfmedication during the last 1 year. Similar results were reported the SM in Medical Students especially during COVID-19 Pandemic: Lower rates were observed in studies conducted in Karachi (76%), Kolkata (65%), Iraq (68.73%), western Ethiopia (73.4%), Saudi Arabia (64.8%), Nigeria (69.4%) and Zambia (61.1%) 12,16,17,9,18,19 respectively. On the other hand, higher rates of SM among the university students were reported in studies conducted in Abbottabad (95.5%), Bangladesh (88%), Jordan (86.7%), Iran (94.1%), Saudi Arabia (98.7%) and Nepal (95.4%) 14,20,21,22 .…”

Self-medication Practices for COVID-19 Prevention: A Study among Medical Students in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

“…This prevalence is lower than that previously reported in a study from Pakistan, in which an online survey of 489 medical or pharmacy students showed that 83% of them practised self-medication during the COVID-19 pandemic [23]. A high prevalence of self-medication with the aim of maintaining health among medical students has been reported in studies in Indonesia (49%) [14] and other developing countries such as Nepal (80%) [8], Zambia (61%) [24], Serbia (80%) [7]and Iran (90%) [5].…”