Prevalence of antimicrobial self-medication among patients attending two hospitals in the Buea Health District, Cameroon
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Abstract
Background: Self-medication is an important public health problem in developed and developing countries, with antimicrobial resistance increasing over time as a result of antimicrobial abuse. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of antimicrobial self-medication as well as associated factors among outpatient consultations of two hospitals within the Buea Health District, Cameroon.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey that was conducted in two hospitals in the Buea Health district from June to October 2018. 329 patients for outpatient consultations were selected by simple random sampling and interviewed. The data was analyzed using SPSS software version 21. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages was used to present data. Chi square test was applied to compare various variables of those who practiced self-medication and those who did not practice in order to find the statistical significance. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine factors associated with self-medication.
Results: Out of the 329 patients who consulted at the outpatient departments, 225 of participants had self-medicated with antimicrobials giving an overall prevalence of 68.4% (95% CI 63.38- 73.42). The highest prevalence of self-medication (81.8%) was found within the age group 30-49 years while 0-9 years had the lowest prevalence of 37.5%. Those unemployed had the highest prevalence of 78.0%. The factors associated with self-medication with antimicrobials were age (p = 0.004) and occupation (p = 0.016). The main reasons for self-medication were cost cutting (40.9%) followed by past experience from similar symptoms (29.3%). The main source of antimicrobials was from the community pharmacy (55.1%).
Conclusion: Health education interventions on self-medication with antimicrobial practices should target people of all ages, sex, education, occupation and community at large. Community pharmacies should not dispense or sell antibiotics without prescriptions to patients. Interventions to decrease self-medication with antibiotics should emphasize on reducing access in obtaining antibiotics without prescription.
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