Availability and usage of medical drugs at household levels in Kinondon district,Dar es Salaam ,Tanzania

Abstract

Although there is an increasing concern about rational drug use and how to improve prescribing habits, little research has been done on the extent to which drugs are kept at household level and instances for their acquisition and use. A cross sectional survey of 400 households was conduct~~ in ten administrative wards of Kinondoni district from February to March 1994. The aim of the study was to determine the factors associated with use and misuse of medicinal drugs at household level. House to house interview was conducted, and a questionnaire was used for data collection. The findings showed that, 73.3% of the sampled households store drugs at home. Moreover 761 different drug preparations were found stored. The drug groups mostly found were, analgesic/antipyretic (19.8%), antimalarials (19.6%), antibacterials (16.4%), and cough expectorants/sedative (6.2%). Apart from modern medicines, 1.2% were traditional medicines. The main source of these drugs were pharmacy shops (35.2%), private hosp/disp (29.6%) and govt hosp/disp (19.3%) others were relatives/friends (8.3%), ordinary shops (5.3%) and medical store (2.3%).

Two thirds of the drugs were in open storage facilities while one third were under lock. Additionally almost (30%) were stored for more than two weeks. It was also observed that 83.3% of respondents agreed that they practice self medication with numerous instances of inappropriate self medication and indiscriminate use of antibiotics and injections. Nearly 50% of the households were sharing drugs within and across the households. In view of shortages of among other things drugs at government health sectors, a majority of households accept the cost sharing policy, but they suggest that the quality of government health facilities should be improved, with the availability of all prescribed drugs. It is recommended that, the Drug Information Unit of the Pharmacy Board, together with the Health Education Unit (MOH) should educate the population on drug storage, proper source of prescribed drugs, and the effects of misuse of drugs. Further more it is suggested that more studies should be conducted all over the country to ascertain the pattern of drug use at househol