1.Prevalence of Self-medication and its Associated Factors in a Hilly Community of Eastern Nepal: A Cross-sectional Study from Dhankuta
Birendra Kumar Yadav, Gambhir Shrestha*, Bharosha Bhattarai, Anish Dhami, Dikshya Rai, Paras Kumar Pokharel
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32463/RPHS.2020.v06i04.01
Abstract
Background: Limited access to the health care facilities in hilly regions can lead to self-medication among the people. The purpose of this study is to estimate the prevalence of self-medication and its associated factors in a community of eastern Nepal. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in three purposively selected VDCs of Dhankuta district. One family member above 16 years of age, preferably head of the family from 376 households were interviewed from November 2015 to December 2015. Data were collected by face-to-face interview using questionnaires which include sociodemographic characteristics, self-medication status, source of information and type of drug self-medicated, condition in which self-medication used. Binary and multiple logistic regression were used to find the association of self-medication with related variables. Results: The mean age of the participants was 40 (SD 14.6) years. A total of 264 (70.2%) participants practiced self-medication within 12 months. Among self-medicated drugs, the most common were paracetamol (83.7%) followed by other NSAIDs (56.4%) and cough remedies (28.4%). The common causes for self-medication were cough, fever and headache. Self-medication was found to be significantly associated with female, low education level, currently not married, less frequency of visiting doctor, acceptable perception about self-medication and self-medication among the family. Conclusions: This study showed that there was a high prevalence of self-medication in Dhankuta district of Nepal. The results suggest a need to aware patients on the appropriateness of self-medication.
