Self Medication Practice in a Nigerian Urban Population

Olayinka O. Ogunleye. Lagos State University College of Medicine, Lagos, Nigeria

Introduction

With this progressive growth of the pharmaceutical industry in Nigeria, the proliferation of alternative therapy providers especially within the Lagos metropolis, the most commercially viable city of the country and the not too successful drug regulatory activities, it becomes needful to investigate what impact these are having on self medication efforts of the populace. Hence, this study was carried out among some selected inhabitants of an urban local government area of Lagos, Nigeria as a pilot survey with the aim of determining the pattern of self medication among this sub- population.

Methodology

This was a cross sectional survey of some selected residents of the old Ikeja Local Government Area of Lagos State conducted over a two month period between March and May, 2009. A three multistage sampling procedure was adopted to select housing units and premises from whence a total number of 250 potential respondents were identified. Information was obtained on the socio demographic characteristics of the respondents, their drug use practices including self medication, sources of drugs and drug information as well as risk/benefits perception of self medication. The information collected was analyzed using commercially available statistical package SPSS version 15.0. Continuous variables were expressed as means (standard deviation), categorical variables as proportions with all tests conducted at 5% level of significance. In addition, a multivariate logistic regression model was obtained for determinants of self medication using the following factors: Age, Sex, Marital Status (Married or Not Married), Literacy Status (Educated or Not Educated), and Occupation category (Public Sector, Private Sector or Artisans).

Results

A total of 207(82.8% response rate) adults responded with mean age of 35.8(9.7) years. There were 143 males (69.1%), 64(30.9%) females. 143 (69.4%) were married , the predominant educational status was post secondary (51.9%) and the population studied mostly engaged in the private employment sector (44%).

156 (85%) of the population studied have been self medicating for a mean period of 9.37(8.69) years. 69.9% used orthodox medicines, 59.9% used the Complementary and Alternative Medicines inclusive of local herbs and other forms of alternative medicines while Nutraceuticals are being used by 31.9%. The most used classes of drugs were Analgesics ( 67.5%), followed by the local herbs (43%). Over 90% of the respondents obtained the information about the drugs used for self medication from the media. Drug vendors are responsible for the supply of drugs to 14.5% of the respondents.

The majority (43.5%) started out of self concerns for wellness in response to information obtained about such drugs. Being in the privately employed was a risk factor for self medication (OR 9.32(1.09-80.01),p = 0.042.

Conclusion

Self medication is highly prevalent among the population of urban Lagos studied. The types of drugs employed included analgesics and complementary and alternative medicines mostly especially the local herbs. The media is contributing significantly to the practice of self medication coupled with the not too successful drug regulatory efforts in Nigeria at the moment. There is a need to institute measures to promote safe practices of self medication.