Prevalence, knowledge and associated factors on self-medication practice among the community of Lalitpur Metropolitan City, Nepal: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

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.

Self-Medication Practice among the Community People of Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City, Nepal

“…The findings of this study revealed that the prevalence of self-medication practice among the participants was found to be 77.7%, which was comparable with the 73.23% prevalent rate reported by the study conducted among the Peri-urban Households of Two Communities of Dharan [23] and 78% of community people in Kathmandu [12]. However, our study findings were higher than the prevalence reported among various types of research on self-medication conducted among the community of Lalitpur Metropolitan City (45.20%) [24], and Urban slum dwellers in India (47%) [25]. This difference in the prevalence of self-medication practice may be due to different sample sizes, the population, cultural differences, healthcare systems, infrastructures, and sociodemographic characteristics.…”

“…According to the study, common cold 143(63.6%), headaches 145(64.4%), fever 79 (35.1%), Cough 43(19.1%), and gastritis 42(18.7%) were the most common symptoms of self-medication, which is consistent with research from Nepal [23], and India [27] who reported these to be the frequent health complaints. The present study showed that the most common reason for self-medication was minor illness 197(87.2%), followed by lack of time to visit doctors 92(40.7%) and due to high fees of doctors 86(38.1%), which is similar to the study among university students in Nepal, showed the common reason was a minor illness, and the prescriptions which were previously used to treat the similar disease conditions [26] and also the community of Lalitpur Metropolitan City, Nepal [24].…”

Prioritizing intervention measures to prevent inappropriate self-medication practices using the Analytical Hierarchy Process

“…A study conducted in a major city of Nepal reported a high prevalence rate of self-medication (45.2%) within the community; almost half the medicines used were POMs. 10 The reason for this could be that in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) like Nepal, the pharmacy is the first place where consumers seek advice for common symptoms and other health related problems and have easy access to medicine/s. 10 , 11 In Nepal, a large number of pharmacies are owned by the private sector with a tendency of being more profit than service oriented.…”

“… 10 The reason for this could be that in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) like Nepal, the pharmacy is the first place where consumers seek advice for common symptoms and other health related problems and have easy access to medicine/s. 10 , 11 In Nepal, a large number of pharmacies are owned by the private sector with a tendency of being more profit than service oriented. 12 This may lead to irrational practice of using POMs as self-medication by consumers because of ease of access, being less time consuming and cheaper than consulting the physician.…”