Abstract
Objective:To study the prevalence and pattern of self-medication among adult males and females in Karachi, Pakistan.Methods:This cross-sectional community- based survey was carried out at five randomly selected towns of Karachi (Defence, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, North Nazimabad, Malir, Orangi town) over a period of 3 months (October, November & December 2012). A sample size of 500 adult cases (250 males & 250 females), with systemic random selection from different towns of Karachi were inducted in this study. The city was divided in 5 zones and one town from each zone was selected by systemic randomization. First available male and female from each randomly selected house were included in the study. After consent and confidentiality assurance they were interviewed on semi-structured Performa designed for this purpose. Results were analyzed and tabulated through SPSS v14.0.Result:The prevalence of self-medication in males and females in Karachi is found to be 84.8% (males 88.4% and females 81.2%). The most frequent symptoms for which self-medication used were headache (32.7%), fever (23.3%) and the medicines used were painkillers (28.8%), fever reducer medicines (19.8%). The most common reason 33.3% was previous experience with similar symptom.Conclusion:Self-medication is highly prevalent (84.8%) in Karachi. It was frequently used for headache followed by fever. Predominantly painkillers, fever reducer and cough syrups were used in the form of tablets and syrups. Main source of medicines for males were friends and for females were relatives.
Highlights
One town from each zone was selected by systemic randomization in order to represent various socio-economic groups and in this regard the selected towns were Defence, Gulshan town, Malir town, North Nazimabad town and Orangi town
The medicines used included 28.8% painkillers (31.5% males, 25.6% females), 19.8%fever reducer medicines (22.0% males, 17.9% females) [Table-II]
It was revealed that 33.3% were using it in the light of previous experience with same medication
Summary
Self-medication can be defined as obtaining and consuming drug(s) without the advice of a physician either for diagnosis, prescription or surveillance of treatment.[1]In studies it is reported that self-medication is widely practiced in developing[2], as well as in developed countries.[3,4] The use of Over-theCounter (OTC) drugs has been studied in many different populations and the results demonstrate that about 25-75% of the population consume OTC medications,[5,6] it has been noticed when people get sick they prefer to consult a chemist or neighbor or search internet or magazines rather to consult a physician and this raises concerns of incorrect selfdiagnosis, drug interaction, and use other than for the original indication.[7]Experts are worried that OTC drugs allow people to ignore serious symptoms until it is too late. Self-medication can be defined as obtaining and consuming drug(s) without the advice of a physician either for diagnosis, prescription or surveillance of treatment.[1]. In studies it is reported that self-medication is widely practiced in developing[2], as well as in developed countries.[3,4] The use of Over-theCounter (OTC) drugs has been studied in many different populations and the results demonstrate that about 25-75% of the population consume OTC medications,[5,6] it has been noticed when people get sick they prefer to consult a chemist or neighbor or search internet or magazines rather to consult a physician and this raises concerns of incorrect selfdiagnosis, drug interaction, and use other than for the original indication.[7]. Experts are worried that OTC drugs allow people to ignore serious symptoms until it is too late. Combining medications is another problem doctors encounter with users of OTC. There are rules for OTC but the gravity of the problem can be serious in developing countries where implementation is generally lacking
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