Self-Medication Practice and Associated Factors Among Health Care Professionals at Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Introduction

Despite self-medication empowers patients in making decisions about the management of minor illnesses independently, the prevalence among health care professionals has sharply increased throughout the world. Self-medication has negative consequences on both the health care professionals themselves and health care delivery. Hence, this study assessed self-medication practices and associated factors among health care professionals at Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital.

Methods

A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted using a structured questionnaire among health care professionals working at Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital from October 10 to 25, 2020. A systematic random sampling technique was employed to select 227 study participants. Multivariate logistic regression was computed using the statistical package for social sciences version 20 and variables with a p-value less than 0.05 were taken as statistically significant. Results were presented in the form of tables and graphs.

Results

Among 227 health professional, 164 (72.2%; 95% CI: 66.0%, 77.7%) practiced self-medication. Of these, 107 (65.2%; 95% CI: 57.3%, 71.8%) stated the negative consequence of self-medication. Drug resistance 96 (89.7%) and adverse drug reaction 95 (88.8%) were reported as a consequence. The predictor of self-medication among health professionals was the pharmacy profession (AOR: 11.88, 95% CI (1.38–102.38)). The most common disease conditions for practicing self-medication were headache 153 (93.3%), respiratory tract infection 116 (70.7%) and gastrointestinal symptoms 103 (62.8%). Pain killers 154 (93.9%), antibiotics 122 (74.4%), and antacid 101 (61.6%) were frequently used for self-medication and health professionals got the medicines from drug retail shops 130 (79.3%) and workplace 104 (63.4%). Mild disease condition 128 (78%), time-saving 124 (75.6%), and accessibility 97 (59.1%) were the reasons for self-medication.

Conclusion

More than two-thirds of health professionals practiced self-medication and reported the negative consequence of self-medication. The predictor of self-medication was the pharmacy profession. The provision of appropriate health education was recommended for promoting rational medication use.

Keywords:

• self-medication
• health professionals
• Ethiopia

Abbreviations

AOR, adjusted odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; COR, crude odds ratio; SD, standard deviation.

Data Sharing Statement

The datasets are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Ethical Consideration

Ethical approval was obtained from Ethics Review Committee of the Department of Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Wollo University (WU Phar/037/13). Then, permission was requested and obtained from Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital. Moreover, information concerning the purpose, sampling and importance of the provided and verbal informed consent was obtained from study participants. In this study, verbal informed consent was approved by the ethics review committee and the study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Confidentiality of study participants data was maintained throughout the study.

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to acknowledge Mrs Mulu Wondimu for her contribution in manuscript edition.

Author Contributions

All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas; took part in drafting, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no potential competing interests in this work.