Knowledge, patterns, and therapeutic factors associated with self-medication practices among adult patients attending outpatient healthcare facilities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.68041/jbpt.v2i2/07Keywords:
Self-medication, drug utilization, therapeutic factors, medication safety, rational drug use, adult patients, healthcare behaviorAbstract
Background: Self-medication occurs throughout the world and defined as the use of medicines without medical advice. The aim was to regulate the extent of self-medication and the therapeutic factors associated with the use of medication among adult patients. Methods: A cross sectional study (n=200) used convenience sampling method was utilized for participant selection. The data were gathered from a pre-designed questionnaire that included the following sections: Socio-demographic data, self-medication frequency, self-medication drugs used, self-medication aims, bases of drug information, understanding the potential risks of self-medication, and utilization of health services (SPSS 26.0 software. p value <0.05). Results: Of the 200 participants, 128 (64.0%) said that they used self-medication over the last six months. The most commonly used medicines were analgesics (72.7%), antipyretics (61.7%), antibiotics (42.2%) and gastrointestinal medicines (38.3%). Past experience with similar symptoms (68.8%), thinking the problem was minor (61.7%), convenience (56.3%) and cost-saving (43.8%) were frequent reasons. Educational status was considerably linked with self-medication (p = 0.012), previous medication use (p = 0.001), accessibility of pharmacies (p = 0.004) and awareness about the risks of drugs (p = 0.018). Logistic regression analysis identified prior successful medication experience (OR = 3.21, 95% CI: 1.74–5.92, p < 0.001), easy pharmacy access (OR = 2.46, 95% CI: 1.31–4.63, p = 0.005), and lower healthcare consultation frequency (OR = 1.98, 95% CI: 1.09–3.61, p = 0.024). Conclusions: Self-medication was very frequent among adult patients and several therapeutic and healthcare factors were identified as influencing self-medication.
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