Self-medication in a developing community.
Representatives of 600 households in Ga-Rankuwa were interviewed to ascertain which medicines they had in their homes and how they would treat themselves for common complaints. There was an average of 1,6 medicines in each household; of these, 89,2% were Western medicines and 9,4% traditional African medicines, while 1,4% could not be classified into either group. The majority of medicines had been obtained from pharmacies (37,1%), general dealers (34.9%) and hospitals or clinics (15,8%). Traditional sources (6,7%), private practitioners (2,4%) and other sources (3,1%) accounted for the rest. For the treatment of most common symptoms respondents preferred to use Western medicines, but on the whole they were reluctant to take them for diarrhoea and vomiting. Most traditional African medicines appeared to be used for coughs and colds.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D004366:Nonprescription Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012651:Self Medication; D013019:South Africa; D013223:Statistics as Topic
D004366:Nonprescription Drugs