SELF-MEDICATION PRACTICES IN ADDIS ABABA A PROSPECTIVE STUDY

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Self-care is a response of individuals to promote or restore theirhealth. Self-medication, one form of self-care, it is the selection and use of medicines byindividuals to treat self-recognized illnesses or symptoms of illnesses. Although there arearguments for and against self-medication, its contribution in the promotion of health isbeyond doubt. This study deals with self-medication on modern drugs and it attempts toassess self-medication practices of drug consumers.METHODS: A multi-stage stratified sampling of drug retail outlets in Addis Ababa wasemployed. Convenient sampling was used to select respondents from among those whocame to the community pharmacies to purchase drugs for self-medication. Respondentswere interviewed after they made their requests but before they were provided withinformation on the drugs they requested. Data were collected using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire.RESULTS: Socio-demographic characteristics of respondents revealed that drugconsumers consisted of all age categories of both genders; as well as pregnant andbreast-feeding mothers of varying educational background levels. The most frequentlyreported illnesses that prompted self-medication of respondents were gastrointestinaldiseases, headache, fever and respiratory tract infections. Slightly greater than 30% ofillnesses/symptoms of illnesses were less than 24 hours and around one-fifth, one ormore weeks of duration. The most common reasons reported for self-diagnosis and self-medication were non-seriousness of the disease, emergency use and prior experience onthe drug. Two-thirds of the drug consumers requested drugs by specifically mentioningthe name of the drug or category to which it belongs and 20.7% by telling their illness orsymptoms of illnesses. More than 100 different types of drugs were requested, the mostfrequent category of drugs being analgesics or antipyretics 30.1%, antimicrobials(26.4%) and gastrointestinal drugs (17.7%).CONCLUSION: Self-medication is widely practised for a wide range of illnesses orsymptoms of illnesses, and for both over-the-counter and prescription only drugs. Thepublic as well as the health care providers have to be educated on the scopes of self-medication; i.e., the type of illnesses to be self-diagnosed and self-treated, and the type ofdrug products to be used in order to promote responsible self-medication.