Attitude, Knowledge and Use of Self-Medication With Antibiotics by Outpatients of Gbagada General Hospital Gbagada Lagos

Purpose: The aim of our study was to evaluate the attitudes, knowledge and use of self-medication with antibiotics among outpatients of Gbagada General Hospital Gbagada – Lagos Nigeria. Methods & Materials: The study design was a cross sectional descriptive study. A pretest of a closed ended questionnaire that was be distributed to the respondents, corrections were made and data was collected February 2021. The sample size of 402 was adopted which was calculated from the target population using the Cochrane formula for sample size calculation. 402 Outpatients of the Gbagada General Hospital Gbagada city area of Lagos was recruited for the study in the aforementioned time period through multi stage probability sampling. All data were be coded, entered, cleaned and then analyzed using the IBM PSPP. Results: 32.59% of respondents said antibiotics can cure all infection. 48.26% of respondents said antibiotics might be effective even if they don't complete their dosage. 94.78% of our respondents have taken antibiotics and 71.89% have self-medicated with antibiotics. 48.26% of respondents said antibiotics might be effective even if they don't complete their dosage.For frequency of antibiotics use majority of respondents (62.44%) use antibiotics when needed. The place of purchase of antibiotics respondents used for self–medication were Local chemist (46.27%) and Patent Medicine stores (41.79%).36.07% and 25.87% have taken antibiotics once and twice respectively between March 2020 and February 2021 which was during the COVID-19 First and second wave in Nigeria. long delays in hospital (43.03%, Convenience (26.37%), Cost saving (20.90%) and attitude of hospital staff (18.16%) were mostly the reasons our respondents were self-medicating with antibiotics. Respondents self-medicated with antibiotics for Infection (40.55%), Fever (38.31%), Sore throat (27.36%), Cough (26.62%), Malaria (26.12%), Typhoid (19.40%), Diarrhea (16.92%), Aches and pains (16.67%). Conclusion: Respondents knew that resistance to antibiotics can be caused by Not completing the dosage (49.25%), Using antibiotics repeatedly (43.28%) and self–medication (34.08%). Respondents knew that antibiotics is used for treating Bacteria infection (85.32%), viral infection (17.66%) and others (8.21%).We recommend the use of media to discourage the masses from self-medication with antibiotics.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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