Abstract

Self-medication practice is the use of medication without prescription of health care professionals. Drug resistance, drug side effects, wastage of resources, and serious health hazards including death are associated with self-medication. We conducted this study to find out the prevalence of self- medication among the peri-urban population of two randomly selected communities of Dharan, Nepal. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among people residing in two randomly selected wards of peri-urban areas of Dharan from November 2017 and April 2018 after obtaining ethical clearance (IRC/1030/017). A pretested, structured self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were collected and entered in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 11.5; point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data. Among 426 respondents, the overall prevalence of self-medication was 312 (73.23%) at 95% Confidence Interval (67.83-78.63%). It was more common among female 158 (78.60%). Common symptoms were headache 201 (64.42%), fever 135 (43.26%), gastrointestinal 93 (29.8%) and respiratory illness 87 (27.88%). Analgesics and antipyretics 275 (88.14%) were the most common drugs self- medicated with. Seeking opinion from pharmacist 112 (35.89%) was the commonest method adopted to procure drugs and comfort 127 (40.7%) and time constraints 122 (39.1%) were the commonest reasons. Prevalence of self-medication among the peri-urban population was similar to other studies. Headache and fever was the common symptoms for which self-medication were adopted. Awareness regarding potential dangers of self-medication and different drug side effects are recommended at the community level.

Highlights

  • Self-medication practice is the use of medication without prescription of health care professionals

  • This study reports 68.44% prevalence of selfmedication among males and 78.60% among females which is inconsistent with the study reports from Italy[12] where predominantly female (75.9%) practiced self-medication

  • The majority (81.96%) of the respondents involved in Self-medication practice (SMP) were 3149 years of age which is inconsistent with the findings of the study conducted in Nigeria,[13] where middleaged groups were more frequently involved in SMP

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Summary

Introduction

Self-medication practice is the use of medication without prescription of health care professionals. Drug side effects, wastage of resources, and serious health hazards including death are associated with self-medication. We conducted this study to find out the prevalence of self- medication among the peri-urban population of two randomly selected communities of Dharan, Nepal. Chapagain et al Self-medication Practices among the Peri-urban Households of Two Communities of Dharan Sub-metropolitan City. The increasing prevalence of self-medication ranging from 0.1 to 100% is a matter of concern.[3] If not practiced safely, dangerous drug interactions, development of drug-resistant pathogens and adverse drug reactions, wastage of resources, risk of dependence, and abuse can result from self-medication

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