Knowledge, attitude, and practice of self-medication with antibiotics among community residents in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

Background: Self-medication with antibiotics, which may cause significant antibiotic resistance, is predominant in developing countries. The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of self-medication with antibiotics among community residents in Ethiopia.

Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted from June to August 2017. Knowledge-Attitude-Practice questionnaire was developed and distributed to eligible household respondents in Addis Ababa and its surrounding area. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with self-medication with antibiotics.

Results: Among the 605 invited participants, 595 respondents were participated in this study (response rate = 98.3%) and 67.3% of the respondents had reported self-medication with antibiotics in the past 6 months. The median score of knowledge about antibiotics was 3 (Inter quarter range: 2–4) of a maximum possible score of 6 and the median score of attitude was 19 (Inter quarter range: 16–22) from a maximum of 29. Self-medication with antibiotics was significantly associated with age, educational status, and average monthly income of the communities.

Conclusions: Respondents have inadequate knowledge and inappropriate practice toward rational use of antibiotics. Policies such as restricting the purchase of antibiotics without a medical prescription and educating appropriate use of antibiotics are urgently needed.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-medication
• antibiotics
• knowledge
• attitude
• practice
• Ethiopia

Article highlights

• About 67.3% of participants had self-medicated with antibiotics in the past six months in the community residents in Addis Ababa.

• Participants had misconception and misbeliefs about the use of antibiotics self-medication.

• The majority of participants (82.3%) purchased antibiotics without a prescription from pharmacy/drug store.

• The most frequent used antibiotics for self-medication were amoxicillin and cotrimoxazole.

• About 45.6% of the participants got information to practice self-medication with antibiotics from pharmacists.

• Most of participants had history of discontinuation, forgetting antibiotic doses, duration, and frequency during the course of treatment, and sharing antibiotics with others.

• About 56.3% of respondents reported that left over antibiotics stored at home for future use.

• A majority of the participants (60.3%) mentioned the previous experience as the most common reason to use antibiotics.

• The determinants of self-medication with antibiotics were age, educational status, and income.

Acknowledgments

Authors are grateful to Addis Ababa health bureau for their cooperation during data collection and Xi’an Jiaotong University for the approval of the proposal. Due thanks should be given to the respondents and data collectors.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

AA Bogale, AF Amhare, ST Betaw, and HA Bogale have made substantial contributions to the design of the work; reviewed the relevant literature, analyzed the data, and interpreted the results. J Chang and NT Gebrehiwot have contributed to the conceptualization, statistical analyses, and revised the manuscript. Y Fang revised the paper and supervised the study. All authors agreed with the results and approved the final manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the ‘Young Talent Support Plan’, ‘High Achiever Plan’ of Health Science Center, Xi’an Jiaotong University, and the Central University Basic Research Fund (2015qngz05).