Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Al-Qahtani, Mohammed A
• Amin, Hussein S
• Al-Qahtani, Abdullah A
• Alshahrani, Abdullah M
• Alghamdi, Hani A
• Althwayee, Musa S
• Alzahrani, Ahmed A

Titel

Self-medication with Antibiotics in a primary care setting in King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Ist Teil von

• Journal of Family & Community Medicine, 2018-05, Vol.25 (2), p.95-101

Ort / Verlag

India: Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The objectives of this study are to estimate the prevalence of self-medication with antibiotics in King Khalid University Hospital population and evaluate the factors affecting this behavior. This was a cross-sectional study conducted at King Khalid university hospital from April to May 2016. A pretested self-administered questionnaire was handed to a random selection of 519 patients attending the primary care clinics . Data were entered into Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and sent to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were applied. The prevalence rate of self-medication with antibiotics was 40.8%. Older patients and males were most likely to use antibiotics without a prescription. The most common illnesses that made patients use antibiotics was upper respiratory tract infections (73.2%). Commercial pharmacies were the major source 82.8%. Only 27.8% patients consulted their physicians for the correct dosage . The previous experience with a similar illness (67.2%) and difficulty in obtaining medical help (29.3%) were the most common reasons for self-administration of antibiotics. Improved health condition (57.8%) was the main reason for stopping the use of antibiotics while lack of improvement in health status led to a shift to another antibiotic in 62.5% of the respondents. The prevalence of using antibiotics without a prescription is relatively high. Proper education of the public on the dangers of the misuse of antibiotics through the media might help to reduce this practice.