scholarly journals Self-medication practice and associated factors among adults in Gorgan, north of Iran

Author(s):  
Mohammad Shokrzadeh ◽  
Reza Hoseinpoor ◽  
Danial Jafari ◽  
Jafar Jalilian ◽  
Yaghoub Shayeste

Background and Purpose: Self-medication is an important concern in every part of the world. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence and to investigate the associate factors of self-medication among adults in Gorgan, north of Iran.  Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among adults aged 12 years and above who were residents in Gorgan city. The participants were selected using the multi-stage cluster sampling method. SPSS Software and Pearson's chi-squared test were used for data analysis. Results: A total of 592 households with 2050 respondents were visited. The prevalence of self-medication was 67.9%. A larger number of females were self-medicating (71.3%) than males (63.5%). The majority of the respondents self-medicated because of the previous use experience (59.3%). The main indication for self-medication use was headache (60.8%).  Analgesics were the most commonly self-medicated by the respondents (83.9%). Also, 88.6% of the respondents prepared their drug from drugstores. Furthermore, there were significant differences between self-medication and demographics characteristics including gender, age group, marital status, occupation, education level and income (p<0.05). Conclusion: The prevalence of self-medication especially with analgesics is relatively high among adult city-dwellers in Gorgan. So, preventive measures, such as strengthening of the communities awareness on the side effects of self-medication practice and regulation of pharmacies are very important mechanisms to decrease the practice. 

Identification of hard tick species and their hosts are essential for the development of control and prevention programs for tick-borne diseases. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, ticks were collected from the sheep, goat, and camel in different regions of South Khorasan province, Iran in 2018 through cluster sampling method. Fauna and frequency of ticks were recorded and analyzed in SPSS software (version?). In total, 977 ticks were collected, such as: Hyalomma spp, including Hy. dromedarii (40.5%), Hy. anatulicum (30.7%), Hy. marginatum (12.5%), Hy. asciaticum (6.8%), Hy. schulzei (4.4%), Hy. detritum (3.2%), and Hy. scupense (1.1%); Rhipicephalus spp, including Rh. bursa (0.3%), Rh. sanguineus (0.2%); and Haemaphysalis spp, including Ha. concina (0.2%), and Ha. punctate (0.1%). The ticks have a high frequency in the region and the identified species in this study were vectors of Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF). Moreover, the Hyalomma species is dominant and prevalent throughout the studied region in spring and summer. Therefore the health system of the province has to put into consideration the essential care, education and informing about the CCHF disease.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 1108-1118
Author(s):  
Birendra Shrivastava ◽  
Omi Bajracharya ◽  
Rajani Shakya

Self-medicine has become one of the important components in day-to-day life to treat mild ailments. If not used rationally, it may lead to serious public health issues. The aim of this study is to explore the prevalence, knowledge, and associated risk factors of self-medication practice among the community of the Lalitpur Metropolitan City of Nepal. A cross-sectional community based prospective study was conducted among 1,004 participants of the Lalitpur Metropolitan City using a pretested and validated questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential analysis with an alpha level of 0.05 by using SPSS. The prevalence of self-medication was 45.20%. The three most common ailments for practicing self-medication were fever, headache, and cough/cold. The top reason for self-medication was minor illness. The study indicated that overall knowledge scores were significantly associated with self-medication (P<0.001). Multiple logistic regression showed the elderly are more oriented towards self-medication practice [AOR=5.22 (95%CI: 2.73-9.98)]. The health professional families have a high affinity towards self-medication practice [AOR=2.82 (95%CI: 1.68-4.75)]. Likewise, storing medicine at home [AOR= 7.01 (95%CI: 5.10-9.64)] and poor knowledge of medicine use were [AOR=1.81 (95%CI: 1.14-2.88)] more likely to prefer self-medication. The prevalence of self-medication was high, mostly due to the poor knowledge about appropriate medicine used. Self-medication is unavoidable in many situations; therefore, implementation of action plans to improve awareness about the consequences of self-medication is needed, thus facilitating its responsible use by the community.


Author(s):  
Sreedevi C.

Background: Immunization is an important cost effective tool for preventing the morbidities and mortalities caused by vaccine preventable diseases. The objectives of this study were to assess the universal immunization programme coverage of children of 12–23 months of age in Kozhikode district and to study the factors associated with immunization coverage.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in 30 randomly selected electoral wards of Kozhikode district which were selected using multi stage cluster sampling technique during April 2013 to May 2014.Results: 469 children were studied from 30 clusters. 75.5% was fully immunized while 1.5% was unimmunized. Dropout rate for DPT 3 to Measles was the highest accounting to 20.2%. Most common reason for failure of immunization among unimmunized was that the parents didn’t feel the need (57.1%) and for partially immunized was the illness of the child (27.8%) followed by lack of awareness of the time of immunization (22.2%). Religion, early age of the mother at marriage and first delivery and high birth order were significantly associated with a higher proportion of partially immunized while higher education of the parents (>12th standard), health worker’s home visit in the first year of the child and presence of immunization card were significantly associated with a high full immunization coverage (p<0.05).Conclusions: Immunization coverage of 75.5% is far behind the target to be achieved. 1.5% of the children didn’t get any of the vaccinations. It is very important to increases the coverage to prevent the re-emergence of vaccine preventable diseases.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mussa S. Manhyabili ◽  
George M. Bwire ◽  
Lubinza Maziku ◽  
Mecky .I. N. Matee

Abstract Background: Self-medication practice (SMP) is the use of medication without the prescription of health care professionals. The major problems associated with self-medication practice have been drug resistance, drug side effects, wastage of resources, and serious health hazards including death. This study was conducted to assess the magnitude and factors associated with self-medication practice among adult household members in Shinyanga Municipal Council (SMC).Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in SMC, in September and October 2020. A multistage cluster random sampling was used to select study participants. Variables such as socio-demographic factors and reasons for SMP were summarized using frequencies and percentages. Chi square and logistic regression test were used to identify factors associated with SMP. All statistics were done using SPSS version 25.Results: In total 422 adult household members were studied, the magnitude of SMP among adult household members in SMC was 86%. The major symptom of illness that lead to SMP were headache 75(38.9%), fever 71 (37%) and cough 52 (27.1%) while paracetamol 84(43.8%), Ampiclox 30 (15.5%) and artemether lumefantrine 25 (13%) were the commonly used drugs. Perceptions of illness as mild 141(38.8%)and previous experience of self-medication138(38%) were the reasons for SMP. Participants who did not complete secondary education were seven times more likely to practice SMP as compared to those who had university education (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] =7.136, 95%CI=1.447-35.180, P=0.016). Participants with average household income (AHI) (<180,000 TSH=<78USD) were less likely to practice SMP compared to those with AHI (B 180,000Tsh) (aOR = 0.424, 95%CI = 0.214 – 0.840, P = 0.014).Conclusion: The magnitude of SMP in Shinyanga Municipal was found to be high.SMP was significantly associated with level of education and average monthly household income. Strengthening of the community’s awareness on the side effects of SMP including antimicrobial resistance in the study area is recommended.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 2457-2461
Author(s):  
Stanley Mwita ◽  
Omary Meja ◽  
Deogratias Katabalo ◽  
Catherine Richard

Background: Anti- malarial self-medication practice in Africa is very common. It is considered as an alternative way for people who cannot afford the cost of health care services. This study was conducted to assess the magnitude and factors associated with anti-malarial self-medication practice among residents of Kasulu Town Council.Materials and methods: The study was a descriptive cross sectional study. Two hundred and eighty consenting respondents were selected by systematic random sampling and interviewed with the aid of a semi structured questionnaire to assess anti-malarial self- medication practice. A p value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant, at 95% confidence interval.Results: Prevalence of anti-malarial self-medication was (69.6%). Majority of the respondents (83.1%) reported that, they did not get better after self- medication. About 36% of the respondents metioned time taken in health facilities as the main factor for self- medication.Conclusion: This study revealed that, self-medication practice is very common among community members in Kasulu district. The main reasons identified for self-medication was long time taken to get treatment in health facilities.Keywords: Anti-malarial, Self- medication, Practice, Kasulu, Tanzania.


Author(s):  
Nisith Kumar Mohanty ◽  
Krushna Chandra Sahoo ◽  
Sanghamitra Pati ◽  
Asish K. Sahu ◽  
Reena Mohanty

Chronic kidney disease is one of the major health challenges in India. Cuttack district of the Odisha state of India is regarded as a hotspot for chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, there is limited information on true prevalence. This study estimates the prevalence of CKD in the Narsinghpur block of Cuttack district, Odisha. A cross-sectional study was conducted among population members aged 20–60 years. Using a multi-stage cluster sampling. 24 villages were randomly selected for mass screening for CKD. Blood samples were collected and glomerulus filtration rates were calculated. It was found that among the 2978 people screened, 14.3% were diagnosed with CKD and 10.8% were diagnosed with CKD without either diabetes or hypertension. In one-third of the sampled villages, about 20% population was diagnosed with CKD. The prevalence was higher among males (57%), in the population below 50 years of age (54%), lower socioeconomic groups (70%), and agricultural occupational groups (48%). Groundwater tube wells (49%) and wells (41%) were the main drinking water sources for CKD patients. This study highlights the need for detection of unknown etiologies of CKD and public health interventions for the prevention of CKD in India.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Mamo ◽  
Yohanes Ayele ◽  
Mesay Dechasa

Purpose. Self-medication practice is often associated with irrational medication use. The aim of this study was to assess self-medication practices among community of Harar City and its surroundings, Eastern Ethiopia. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted through exit interview in selected drug outlets of Harar City among 370 clients from March to April, 2017. The data was coded and entered into epi-data and processed and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results. Many participants practiced self-medication to alleviate their headache (30.30%), to treat their respiratory disorders (29.50%), and to treat their gastrointestinal disorders (27%). More than half (57.8%) of study participants declared that they were practicing self-medication due to prior experience and seeking less expensive service (20.50%). Two-fifths of them (40.3%) reported pharmacy professionals as source of information while 18.9% of respondents were advised by neighbors, friends, or relatives. About one-third (31.9%) of them did not have any source of information for self-medication practice. The most common type of drug used for self-medication by the participants was analgesic (42.2%). Approximately one-third (31.1%) of the subjects were expecting to be counseled by the pharmacy professionals about the drug side effects and to be helped in selecting their self-medication drug (30.3%). Conclusion. Varieties of medications were used among study participants ranging from antipain to that of antibiotics for different complaints including headache, respiratory complaints, and gastrointestinal problems. Experience with drugs and diseases as well as affordability were frequently reported reasons for self-medication practice. Participants had different views toward the role of pharmacy professionals. Hence, it is very important to educate patients on responsible use of medications and create awareness on the role of pharmacist in self-selected medication use in community.


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