Patterns of Self-medication Practices by Caregivers to Under-five Children in South-Western Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACT Self-medication has generated a serious public health concern with its accompanied unhealthy practices. In Nigeria, the prevalence of self-medication is on the increase. Globally, the use of medicines for children is of serious concern as children are considered to be vulnerable group. Despite the full range of self-medication practices, not much is known about its extension to the most vulnerable of under-five children in Nigeria. This paper examined the patterns of self-medication practices among the caregivers to under-five children in south-western Nigeria. Two local government areas from Lagos and Osun states were selected for the study based on their cosmopolitanism and non-cosmopolitanism nature. Eighty-six caregivers to under-five children within the communities participated in the discussions. Purposive snowballing technique was used to select the participants in the study area with the aid of people of influence in the community for the FGDs. Twelve FGDs were conducted and stratified into younger caregivers and older caregivers. Data were collected with the aid of FGD guide for the caregivers of U-5 children and with the assistance of audio-tape recorder to obtain relevant information from those involved in the practice of self-medicating to their U-5 children. Data were analyzed based on thematic analysis. This was developed by the use of codes based on the identified variables from the fieldwork. Data were transcribed verbatim and classified into different themes. Analysis was done with the aid of Nvivo 11.0, a software designed for the analysis of qualitative data. The pattern of self-medication identified from this study included various combinations of herbal medicine, western medicine and faith-based medicaments. Also, the social factors associated with these patterns included, age of the caregivers, level of education, religion and relationship of the caregivers to their under-five children.