Use of Un-Prescribed Drugs and Traditional Medications among Pregnant Women Attending Primary Health Centres in Kano, Nigeria

Abstract

The use and misuse of drugs in Sub Saharan region are of public health concern. Exposures to un-prescribed drugs and traditional medications are frequent and create a great danger in pregnant women. The use of herbal medicines has been on the increase in many developing and industrialized countries. The study examined the use of traditional medications and un-prescribed orthodox medicines for gestational mothers. A descriptive cross-sectional design & inferential statistic were employed for the study and a total sample of one hundred and ninety-six was used. A standardized data collection form was employed based on the World Health Organization criteria and the obtained data were analyzed using SPSS Version 22.The result showed that most of the respondents were between the age of 22- 27 years with the mean age of 24 years and majority of the respondents (63.3%) used both un-prescribed drugs and traditional medicines during pregnancy, while 27.0% used only un-prescribed drugs and 9.7% use only traditional medications. More so, the results revealed that pain killers’ drug were the leading cause for misused. Also, the results demonstrated a significant relationship between respondent’s awareness of harm associated with use of un-prescribed medications and educational status, (P < 0.01). The study concluded a wide spread use of un-prescribed drugs and traditional medications among pregnant women and therefore, recommend the need for health education and massive campaign with community involvement against the wrong practices by both the healthcare practioners and the government.