Awareness, Knowledge, Perception and Attitude towards Prescription Medicines Abuse among Medicines Prescribers and Dispensers in Nnewi Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Abuse of medicines is becoming a serious problem in many parts of the world, with negative consequences ranging from addiction, psychosis, cardiovascular complications, and premature deaths from unintentional overdose. Objectives: The objective of this study is to assess awareness, knowledge, perception and attitudes toward the abuse of prescription medicines (PM) among medicines prescribers and dispensers in Nigeria. Design and Participants: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among pharmacists, other pharmacy staff in retail pharmacies, licensed patent medicines vendors (chemical sellers), and medical doctors in Nnewi, Nigeria. Data were collected through self-completed questionnaire supervised by trained research assistants, between December 2013 and April 2014. Three hundred and seventy-five participants were recruited for this study. Data Analysis: The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17 for windows was used for data analysis. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were carried * Corresponding author. P. O. U. Adogu et al. 255 out to evaluate differences and associations based on selected variables. Results: The perception was high 294 (78.4%) among respondents that PM abuse was a problem in the community. Knowledge of health problems associated with PM abuse was also high at 226 (60.3%). However the attitude of the respondents towards early detection of PM abuse among their patients/clients was discouraging. Education, educational status, work status and gender significantly predict good knowledge and positive attitude about PM abuse. Conclusion: Findings from this study will assist health authorities to formulate appropriate health promotion interventions to control and prevent abuse of prescription medicines. Actions directed at early intervention, capacity building, education, public health initiatives and law enforcements will hopefully curb the menace of PM abuse in Nnewi, Nigeria.

The Effects of Early Marriage on the Utilization of Maternal Health Services in Nigeria

“…The regression analysis showed less likelihood of women who married early to receive antenatal care, four or more prenatal visits, iron supplementation and malaria preventive therapy during pregnancy but the adjusted odd ratio showed no significant association in both the frequency and quality of prenatal care received. The findings on poor prenatal care among early marriage generally agree with previous studies [7,20]. However, whereas many of the studies found significant association in the adjusted model between early marriage and low utilization of antenatal care, this study observed no difference.…”

“…However, attaining four or more antenatal care visits has only been possible for fewer pregnant women particularly among adolescent women aged 15-19 years who are more likely to have comparatively lower access [3][4][5]. Nonetheless, uptake of both prenatal and intrapartum care has improved over the years, but progress has been slow and often constrained by many socio-economic factors such poverty, low educational status, geopolitical zone of residence, living in rural area [3,6,7].…”

“…Remarkably, socioeconomic factors such as poverty, low education attainment and rural residence which are associated with the prevalence of Early marriage are similarly implicated in limiting utilization of maternal health services in Nigeria [3,6,7,14]. In Northwest Nigeria where early marriage is most prevalent and women utilize maternal health services the least [2], age of marriage is viewed along with other social economic factors such as low education status, lack of autonomy in decision making, distance from health facility, poverty as the major constraints to utilizing maternal health services [15].…”