Prevalence of dysmenorrhea and associated factors among female students at St. Mary University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: - Self-medication with antibiotics (SMA) is a growing concern worldwide with high prevalence, in developing countries. Several factors induce the practice of self-medication, such as irrational and uncontrolled dispensing of medicinal substances, difficulty accessing health-care systems, and cost of diagnosis. Thus, this study assessed the prevalence of self-medication with antibiotics and its associated factors among outpatient department in Arada sub city health centers, Addis Ababa Objective: - The aim of the study is to assess the prevalence and associated factors of self-medication with antibiotics among adult patients visiting outpatient department in Arada sub city health centers in, Addis Ababa. Methods: - An Institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among adult outpatients from November 2023 to January 2024. The data was entered using Epi info version 7 and STATA version 17 was used for analysis. Bivariate and Multivariable analysis were carried out to see the effect of each independent variable on the dependent variable was considered statistically significant, if the p-value < 0.05 Result: - From 631respondent 271, 42.9% [95% CI (39.0, 46.9] has self-medicated with antibiotics. Majority of them practiced once or twice in a period of 12 months. The main reasons for SMA were previous experience of treatment with the same symptoms (34.3%) and for emergency use to get quick relief (22.5%). commonly used antibiotics are amoxicillin (45 %). Cough (24%) and diarrhea (19%) were the most self-treated complaints that required self-medication with antibiotics. Common source of antibiotics were community pharmacy. Not having health insurance (AOR = 5.65; 95% CI: 3.50; 9.05), poor knowledge (AOR =2.34; 95% CI: 1.28, 4.28) and negative attitude (AOR = 9.28; 95% CI: 5.88, 14.64) of the participants were found significantly associated with the practice of SMA in the multivariable logistic regression. Conclusions: - The study showed that almost half of the respondents had self-medicated with antibiotics.Though majority of the respondents considered self-medication with antibiotics as inappropriate practice, about half of them were practicing it anyway. Therefore immediate attention from relevant bodies is required.