Self-medication with antibiotics: A knowledge, attitude, and practice appraisal of 610 dental patients in Chennai, India, from 2016 to 2017

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:Antibiotics are considered the most commonly sold drugs in developing countries. In India, these drugs are very much accessible without a prescription. This irrational and misuse of antibiotics results not only in the emergence of resistance of bacterial strains but also leads to adverse reactions.AIM:The aim of this study was to investigate the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice of antibiotics usage among dental patients.MATERIALS AND METHODS:Study design: This study was a cross-sectional design; a prevalidated structured questionnaire comprising 24 questions was used.SAMPLE SIZE:Six hundred and ten patients visiting a dental hospital, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, were included in the study.RESULTS:The dental patients involved in self-medication were more than 70%. 80.2% of the study group opted selection of antibiotics from their previous prescription from dental or medical professional. Adverse effects were faced by 7.8% of patients on taking self-medication. The study group was aware of the common dental procedures such as extraction and root canal treatment in which antibiotics were commonly prescribed. Half of the patients (53.8%) do not know the term antibiotic misuse, and 43.3% of the group opted antibiotic misuse to be unacceptable.CONCLUSION:The study revealed the knowledge, attitude, and practice of the patients about self-medication in the Indian scenario. There is need for health-care professionals and government bodies to enlighten the public about the harmful effects of self-medication with antibiotics to overcome the antibiotic resistance.

Trends in Antibiotic Self-Medication for Dental Pathologies among Patients in the Dominican Republic: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…These results are consistent with those obtained by Grigoryan et al [ 18 ], who studied self-medication practices in Europe and found that the highest prevalence rates were observed in European countries with a similar culture to the Dominican Republic, such as Spain (25.1–37.9%), Malta (38–46.5%), and Italy (44.4–58.0%). Our data also agree with countries with different cultures, such as Nigeria and Beirut (41.5–42%) [ 33 , 34 , 35 ], but are lower than in countries across the Indian subcontinent, where reported figures range from 57.3% in Pakistan to 100% in parts of India [ 30 , 36 , 37 , 38 ], perhaps because, in this geographical region, almost all pharmacies sell antibiotics without prescription. In contrast, a frequency of self-medication of 23.5% has been reported in Nigeria [ 12 ] and 18.7% in Brazil [ 39 ], although this does not indicate whether this medication had been previously prescribed by a dentist.…”

“…Reasons for engaging in this practice may include the high cost of treatment, poor socioeconomic status, inadequate access to a dental care environment, insufficient insurance coverage [ 5 , 26 , 27 , 28 ], cultural influence on some diseases, and dental phobia/anxiety [ 29 ]. Considering that many patients self-medicate based on, among others, previous dental experiences or on the recommendation of acquaintances or relatives [ 30 , 31 ], self-medication in dentistry is of great importance to relieve the global burden of antibiotic resistance. Because of the scarce evidence on the self-medication of antibiotics for dental pathologies in the Dominican Republic, the present research aims to obtain data on these practices in order to establish whether it is necessary to strengthen policies at a local level.…”

Antibiotic Use and Misuse in Dentistry in India—A Systematic Review

“…Nine studies [ 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 ] examined self-medication practices by the general population for dental/oral problems.…”

“…Of the 49 studies assessed using the AXIS tool, six studies were judged as having a low risk of bias [ 35 , 47 , 59 , 63 , 72 , 85 ], fifteen studies [ 34 , 38 , 48 , 53 , 57 , 58 , 60 , 62 , 64 , 70 , 78 , 83 ] were judged as having a moderate risk of bias and twenty-eight studies [ 33 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 61 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 71 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 84 , 89 , 90 ] were judged as having a high risk of bias. The qualitative study satisfied seven out of ten criteria of the JBI Critical appraisal tool.…”

Socioeconomic Determinants of Health Contributing to the Consumption of Nonprescribed Medicines in Ethiopia

“…[7][8][9] In this regard, the risk of antimicrobial resistance and its public health impact is also an additional issue. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] On the contrary, SM or the use of nonprescribed medicine is a behavioral response of individuals to promote or restore their health and encourage self-care and has advantages that include saving scarce medical resources, reducing absenteeism from work, reducing pressure on available medical services, and increase availability of health care populations in rural areas. 6,17,18 Several pieces of evidence have shown that SM practice is influenced by sociodemographic factors, which include level and field of education, economy, job status advertisements, advice from relatives or friends, availability of pharmacies, mobile applications, self-knowledge and previous prescriptions by doctors or experience with a drug to treat similar illness.…”