Prevalence of self-medication in children under-five years by their mothers in Yogyakarta city Indonesia

BACKGROUND: The trend of combating minor ailments at home in children is a common practice in Indonesia. When it comes to very smaller children like those of age under-five. AIMS: Consequences can be worse if not managed well. Self-medication among these children is not well studied in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY: In this study a questionnaire-based random survey among different areas of Yogyakarta city from the mothers bearing children if age under five. Questionnaire were validated by three experts, for reliability test a pilot study conducted on 10 mothers, after that questionnaire used for data collection. Data were analyzed by using SPSS Descriptive analysis to get frequency and percentage. RESULTS: The overall prevalence reported is 58.82% (50/85). An increasing trend of self-medication was seen among high-higher secondary schools education mothers with 35.3%. In income factor 2600K-3000K mostly found in the self-medication. The residential area also seems influential upon this practice, i.e., 58.8% rural people depends on self-medication while urban people only 39.2% involved in self-medications. CONCLUSION: As a large population of very small children is under this practice so, proper education of mothers especially in rural areas is needed for the appropriate use of medicines.