Self-Medication Practices among University Students in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The practice of self-medication is a global phenomenon. The prevalence of self-medication varies globally from 60-90%. There are many reasons for the increase in self-medication practices across the world, like poor diagnostic and management ability of health care workers that lead to low utilisation of health care services. Objectives: This study assessed the prevalence and practices of self-medication among university students. Method: The total number of respondents was 215 and were selected using a multi-stage sampling technique. A semi, structured self-administered adapted questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. Data was first entered into Excel and analysed using SPSS v.20 software. Results: The response rate was 96% (n=206) and the prevalence of self-medication practice was found to be 88.3% (n=182). Headache 73.8% (n=152) and Fever 57.3% (n=118) were the commonest reasons for self-medication. There was no association between self-medication and availability of professional medical service (χ2 = 0.79, P = 078), sex (χ2 = 0.26, P = 0.61), and marital status (χ2 = 0.04, P = 0.81). However, a significant association was observed between self-medication and knowledge (χ2 = 6.10, P = 0.02), smoking (χ2 = 9.71, P = 0.01) and having a medical insurance (χ2 = 7.11 and P = 0.01). The common medications used for self-medications are analgesics (98.9%), antibiotics (58.3%) and cough mixture (46.7%). Conclusion: The prevalence of self -medication observed among students is high. There is a need to increase awareness of the dangers associated with self-medication. Keywords: Selfmedications, prevalence, students, Nigeria