Self-medication practice and associated factors among pregnant women in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract

In spite of, the need for evidence-based intervention on the potential harmful effects of self-medication practices during pregnancy, there is no systematic review and meta-analysis study regarding self-medication practices in Ethiopia. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine prevalence of self-medication practice and associated factors among pregnant women in Ethiopia. We used PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, the Wiley Online Library, and African Journals Online to choose important studies. The I-squared statistic method was used to check for heterogeneity between studies. Random effect model was used to estimate the pool prevalence of self-medication among pregnant women. Publication bias was determined by the funnel plot and Egger's test. A total of 11 studies with 4643 study participants were included in this review. The finding from the current meta-analysis showed that the overall prevalence of self-medication practice among pregnant women is 33.92% (95% CI: 23.15-44.70, I² value = 80.9%). First trimester of pregnancy (OR: 2.24, 95% CI: 1.44-3.47), women who faced health problems during pregnancies at the moment (OR: 5.7, 95% CI: 3.92-8.29), previous self-medication practice (OR: 13.07, 95% CI: 5.14-33.25) and previous pregnancy-related problems (OR: 2.065, 95% CI: 1.44-2.96) were positively associated with self-medication practice among pregnant women. The prevalence of self-medication practices among pregnant women is found to be high. Self-medication practices of the pregnant women were significantly higher among women who were in first-trimester pregnancy, encountered illness during pregnancy, previous self-medication history, and previous pregnancy-related problems.Prospero registration number: CRD42023394907.