Factors Associated With Antimicrobial Self-Medication in Birim Central Municipal of Eastern Region Ghana

Abstract

Introduction: Self-medication is the prolonged use of medicines to treat any symptom or illness without medical prescriptions. The emergence of resistant bacteria strains is mainly associated with antimicrobial self-medication. Aim: Self-medication with antimicrobial is a health problem globally especially in low-and-middle income countries (LMIC) like Ghana, so this study investigated the prevalence and factors associated with antimicrobial in three rural communities (Akyem-Asuboa, Akyem-Manso and Akyem-Asene) in the Birim Central Municipal of the Eastern region of Ghana. Inhabitants of these communities prefer to first patronize drug stores than visiting a health facility when they are sick. Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in three (3) communities with a total of three hundred and fifty-six (356) participants aged 18-60 years and selected through simple random probability sampling. Data was collected using a pretested questionnaire and within six (6) weeks duration. Consent was sought from all participants before the instrument was administered to them. Questionnaire used can be found attached in appendix pages. Prevalence was determined by the last time a participant self-medicated on antimicrobial in the past nine months. Results: Prevalence of antimicrobial self-medication in Birim Central Municipal is 86% (95% CI; 82-89), the factors associated with self-medication included previous experience with symptom (p = 0.03), high cost of medical consultation (p = 0.012) and self-medication being less expensive (p = <0.001) were found to be statistically significant with antimicrobial self-medication. The most used antimicrobials were Metronidazole at78% (95% CI; 73 - 82), Penicillin-V was also known by inhabitants of the study areas as cross tablet, at 65% (95% CI; 59 - 70) and Amoxicillin was the third most used antimicrobial at 57% (95% CI 53 - 64). Respondents who had valid health insurance cards but still self-medicated were 70% while catarrh (common cold) was the most common symptom 60% self-medicated for. Conclusion: The prevalence of antimicrobial self-medication was relatively high at 86% in the Birim Central Municipal of Eastern Region, Ghana. The common symptoms that caused participants to self-medicate were catarrh (common cold),skin sore and diarrhea. Self-medication on antimicrobial was reported to be less expensive, high cost of medical consultation discouraged participants from visiting health facilities and previous experience with a particular symptom was a factor in antimicrobial self-medication.