Self-medication among health workers in a tertiary institution in South-West Nigeria.
BACKGROUND
Inappropriate self-medication results in wastage of resources, resistance to pathogen and generally entails serious health hazard. This study was undertaken to determine the knowledge, practice and reasons for practice of self-medication among health workers in a Nigerian tertiary institution.


METHODS
This was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted among staff of Federal Medical Center Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 305 respondents that were interviewed via a pretested semi-structured questionnaire. Analysis was done using SPSS version 15 and while chi-square test was used to test significance between variables, significant (p value set<0.05).


RESULTS
Among the 305 respondents interviewed, the age range was 18-52yrs with greater proportion being males (51.8%). Majority of respondents were aware of self-medication (94.8%), but only 47.2% had good knowledge of it. Reasons for practicing self-medication were financial problem (10.8%), mild sickness (10.8%), lack of time (13.4%), knowledge of diagnosis (5.6%), convenience (2.3%) and non-availability of doctors (3.0%). The drugs used by respondents without prescription included analgesics (38.2%), antibiotics (19.0%) anti-malaria drugs (13.3%), and others (29.4%). Conditions for which respondents self-medicated were body pains (14.9%), catarrh (14.9%), headache (14.3%), sore throat (11.5%), diarrhea (11.2%), fever (9.0%) and toothache (5.6%).


CONCLUSIONS
The study demonstrates that the prevalence of self-medication is relatively high. There is need for health education on the implication and danger of self-medication. There is also need for government to pass and enforce law to restrict free access to drugs.
Department of Community Medicine, Federal Medical Center, Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria.
Oluwole Adeyemi
OA
Babatunde
Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.
Joseph Olusesan
JO
Fadare
Department of Community Medicine, Federal Medical Center, Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria.
Olujide John
OJ
Ojo
Department of Community Medicine, Unilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Nigeria.
Kabir Adekunle
KA
Durowade
Department of Community Medicine, Federal Medical Center, P.M.B 201, Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria.
Oladele Ademola
OA
Atoyebi
Department of Community Medicine, Federal Medical Center, Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria.
Paul Oladapo
PO
Ajayi
Department of Community Medicine, Federal Medical Center, Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria.
Temitope
T
Olaniyan
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009549:Nigeria; D015995:Prevalence; D012651:Self Medication / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
Self-medication; adverse drug reactions; healthcare workers; hospital