People’s knowledge, attitude and practices about self medication and its implications in Ilala municipality, Dar es salaam

Abstract

Background: Self medication has become a public health concern considering the high prevalence of the practice worldwide. Studies have revealed alarming knowledge deficiency about self medication and its implications; likely leading to inappropriate utilization of the medicines. The practice has therefore resulted into abuse of medicines, hence culminating into implications such as harmful side effects; multi-drug resistance and delay in seeking medical care at the health facilities, and children are one of the vulnerable groups to the practice of self medication.

Objective: The study was aimed at determining the people’s knowledge, attitude and practices about self medication and its implications amongst caretakers of under five years old children in Ukonga ward in Ilala Municipality-Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in order to have a better understanding of their practice, knowledge and attitude about self medication and its implications.

Materials and Methods: The study was cross sectional in nature with a sample size of 281 subjects selected from the Dar es Salaam Urban Cohort Project’s Health and Demographic Surveillance site using convenient non-probability sampling. The study population was caretakers of under five years old children aged from 18-54 years. Data was collected using a questionnaire with structured and open ended questions. Data entry, cleaning and analysis has been done using a computer programmer in SPSS version 20.

Results: The prevalence of self medication was found to be 68.8% and 71.5% for under five years old children and for persons aged 5 years and above respectively despite the negative attitude towards the practice. Community pharmacies were found to be the major source of medicines used for self medication. Thus, 80% (12) of the males self medicated the under 5 years old child while for females it was 71.6%. The AOR was 1.9 with CI of 1.76- 4.76. Thus, females are nearly 2 times more likely to self medicate their children than males. It was also revealed that there is lack of knowledge about self medication and its implications with an association between age and knowledge about self medication. The AOR was 1.8 with CI of 1.87-3.52; implying that older people are almost 2 times more likely to be knowledgeable about self medication and its implications than the young ones. The study has also depicted an association between keeping medicines at home and age of the respondents. The AOR was 3.07 with CI of 1.29-7.29; implying that older people are 3 times more likely to keep medicines at home than the young ones.

Conclusion and Recommendation: Prevalence of self medication practice in the study area is very high. People are keeping and using prescription only medicines for self medication. Community pharmacies are the major source of the medicines. There is generally lack of knowledge about self medication practice and its implications despite the negative attitude towards the practice. Community awareness on the practice of self medication and its implications would be essential in improving the people’s knowledge about self medication practice, thereby curbing it, and consequently averting the implications associated with it.