Osamagbe Tasie1
,
Essy Clementina Isah2
For correspondence:- Osamagbe Tasie Email: osakueosama@yahoo.com Tel: +2348182480970
Published: 30 June 2021
Citation: Tasie O, Isah EC. Assessment of self-medication with antibiotics among youths in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria. Trop J Med Dent Pract 2021; 2(2):53-59 doi: 10.47227/tjmdp.v2i2.3
© 2021 The author(s).
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Introduction: Self-medication has facilitated the growing prevalence of antibiotics misuse and the emergence and spread of microbial resistance which has become a global public health challenge. This study aimed to assess self-medication practices with antibiotics among youths in Obio-Akpor local government area, Rivers State.
Methods: This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out between January and July 2021. Pre-tested questionnaires and a multi-stage sampling technique was used to collect information from respondents who had used antibiotics in the last two months preceding this survey. The overall knowledge of, attitude towards antibiotics use and prevalence of antibiotics self-medication were the outcomes measured. Data was analyzed and the results presented using descriptive statistics.
Results: Out of the 486 questionnaires distributed, the response rate was 87.9%. The mean age of respondents was 24.7 ± 3.17 years with a female preponderance of 54.1%. Overall knowledge of antibiotics use was demonstrated by 59% of respondents and positive attitude towards antibiotic use was also shown by 59% of respondents. Prevalence of antibiotics self-medication was 54%, ciprofloxacin being the commonest self-medicated antibiotics. Level of education was statistically associated with antibiotic use (p=0.001). Good knowledge of antibiotic use increased the odds of its rational use by about four times (95% CI=1.614-11.964; p=0.004) and positive attitude by about six times (95% CI=2.659-16.717; p=0.000) while poor knowledge increased the odds of obtaining antibiotics from family members and friends by about eleven times (95% CI=2.568-53.306; p=0.0001).
Conclusion: This study revealed that majority of respondents practiced self-medication with antibiotics despite having average knowledge of, and attitude towards antibiotics use. This calls for the need to intensify public enlightenment campaigns on rational antibiotics use.
