Attitude, Knowledge, and Use of Self–Medication with Antibiotics by Outpatients of Gbagada General Hospital Gbagada Lagos.

Abstract

Self-medication with antibiotics is a threat to global health and becoming increasingly common due to multiple factors. 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. The objective of this research was to access the attitudes, knowledge and use among the Patients that use Self–medication with antibiotics. The study design was a cross-sectional descriptive study. A pretest of a closed-ended questionnaire was distributed to the respondents, corrections were made, and data was collected in February 2021. 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. Thirty–three percent of respondents said antibiotics could cure all infections. Forty-eight percent 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. Forty-eight percent of respondents said antibiotics might be effective even if they don’t complete their dosage, Not completing the dosage (49.25%), Using antibiotics repeatedly (43.28%), and Self – medication (34.08%). The percentage of the respondent that have taken antibiotics once and twice between March 2020 and February 2021, which was during the COVID – 19 First and second wave in Nigeria, were (36.07%) and (25.87%) respectively. We recommend the use of media to discourage the masses from self-medication with antibiotics.