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Self-Medication with Antibiotics: Prevalence, Practices and Related Factors among the Pakistani Public

Self-medication with antibiotics (SMA) has become considerably common in developing countries, which is a critical factor for driving antibiotic resistance. Individuals involved in SMA generally do not have adequate knowledge regarding the appropriate use, indications and dosage of these drugs. The...

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Autores principales: Aslam, Adeel, Zin, Che Suraya, Jamshed, Shazia, Rahman, Norny Syafinaz Ab, Ahmed, Syed Imran, Pallós, Péter, Gajdács, Márió
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9219843/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35740201
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11060795
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author Aslam, Adeel
Zin, Che Suraya
Jamshed, Shazia
Rahman, Norny Syafinaz Ab
Ahmed, Syed Imran
Pallós, Péter
Gajdács, Márió
author_facet Aslam, Adeel
Zin, Che Suraya
Jamshed, Shazia
Rahman, Norny Syafinaz Ab
Ahmed, Syed Imran
Pallós, Péter
Gajdács, Márió
author_sort Aslam, Adeel
collection PubMed
description Self-medication with antibiotics (SMA) has become considerably common in developing countries, which is a critical factor for driving antibiotic resistance. Individuals involved in SMA generally do not have adequate knowledge regarding the appropriate use, indications and dosage of these drugs. The objective of the present study was to investigate population SMA practices, knowledge and sociodemographic factors associated with SMA in Islamabad, Pakistan. The study adopted a cross-sectional methodology and data collection was performed through an anonymous, structured and pilot-tested questionnaire, which was interview-administered. Inferential statistics and multivariate logistic regression were performed. Out of 480 participants, 55.6% (n = 267) were male with a mean age of 37.1 ± 10.1 years; the total prevalence of SMA was 32.5%. Ciprofloxacin (42.9%) was the most commonly used antibiotic to treat coughs or colds, a runny nose, flu or sore throat, diarrhea or fevers, which were relevant reasons for SMA. Findings from multivariate logistic regression showed that predictors of SMA were: male gender (95% CI: 0.383–1.005), age (95% CI: 0.317–0.953) and highest level of education (95% CI: 0.961–0.649). Despite reasonable access to healthcare facilities, people are still obtaining antibiotics without prescription, bypassing diagnostic and consultative healthcare services. Thus, the government must implement strict healthcare policies to restrict the sale of antibiotics without prescriptions, while at the same time, targeted public awareness campaigns about the proper use of antibiotics are also required.
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spelling pubmed-92198432022-06-24 Self-Medication with Antibiotics: Prevalence, Practices and Related Factors among the Pakistani Public Aslam, Adeel Zin, Che Suraya Jamshed, Shazia Rahman, Norny Syafinaz Ab Ahmed, Syed Imran Pallós, Péter Gajdács, Márió Antibiotics (Basel) Article Self-medication with antibiotics (SMA) has become considerably common in developing countries, which is a critical factor for driving antibiotic resistance. Individuals involved in SMA generally do not have adequate knowledge regarding the appropriate use, indications and dosage of these drugs. The objective of the present study was to investigate population SMA practices, knowledge and sociodemographic factors associated with SMA in Islamabad, Pakistan. The study adopted a cross-sectional methodology and data collection was performed through an anonymous, structured and pilot-tested questionnaire, which was interview-administered. Inferential statistics and multivariate logistic regression were performed. Out of 480 participants, 55.6% (n = 267) were male with a mean age of 37.1 ± 10.1 years; the total prevalence of SMA was 32.5%. Ciprofloxacin (42.9%) was the most commonly used antibiotic to treat coughs or colds, a runny nose, flu or sore throat, diarrhea or fevers, which were relevant reasons for SMA. Findings from multivariate logistic regression showed that predictors of SMA were: male gender (95% CI: 0.383–1.005), age (95% CI: 0.317–0.953) and highest level of education (95% CI: 0.961–0.649). Despite reasonable access to healthcare facilities, people are still obtaining antibiotics without prescription, bypassing diagnostic and consultative healthcare services. Thus, the government must implement strict healthcare policies to restrict the sale of antibiotics without prescriptions, while at the same time, targeted public awareness campaigns about the proper use of antibiotics are also required. MDPI 2022-06-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9219843/ /pubmed/35740201 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11060795 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Aslam, Adeel
Zin, Che Suraya
Jamshed, Shazia
Rahman, Norny Syafinaz Ab
Ahmed, Syed Imran
Pallós, Péter
Gajdács, Márió
Self-Medication with Antibiotics: Prevalence, Practices and Related Factors among the Pakistani Public
title Self-Medication with Antibiotics: Prevalence, Practices and Related Factors among the Pakistani Public
title_full Self-Medication with Antibiotics: Prevalence, Practices and Related Factors among the Pakistani Public
title_fullStr Self-Medication with Antibiotics: Prevalence, Practices and Related Factors among the Pakistani Public
title_full_unstemmed Self-Medication with Antibiotics: Prevalence, Practices and Related Factors among the Pakistani Public
title_short Self-Medication with Antibiotics: Prevalence, Practices and Related Factors among the Pakistani Public
title_sort self-medication with antibiotics: prevalence, practices and related factors among the pakistani public
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9219843/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35740201
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11060795
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