Self-medication practices and associated factors among undergraduate students at Makerere University

Abstract

Self-medication is defined as the use of drugs without consultation, prescription from medical personnel to treat self-diagnosed symptoms or diseases (M. E. Ruiz, 2010) .The practice of self-medication extends through the use of leftover prescription medications and sharing of medication with members of one’s family and social circle, to utilization of old prescriptions and not abiding to the treatment plan like doubling or reducing the dose noted in the prescription (Mathias, D'Souza, & Prabhu, 2020). A study that was conducted at Mbarara University revealed a 63.5% prevalence of self-medication practices among the students (Niwandinda et al., 2020b), this was similar with that obtained from a study conducted among Makerere University students in 2018 but there is still a gap in the exploration of the self-medication practices and the associated factors (derivers) among this population. This study therefore showed an explorative version about self-medication practices and its associated factors among undergraduate students at Makerere University which may be helpful in successively identifying and implementing measures to control this practice. This was an exploratory qualitative study venturing the experiences of the participants (MUK Undergraduates) who had self-medicated in the previous 6 months and was conducted in nine halls of residence at Makerere University with participants traced from the records of the health ministers of the halls. A total of thirteen (13) Undergraduate students were interviewed. Their mean age was 22 years in the range (20-24), mainly females 7(53.8%) and it was found that self-medication practices included commonly used medicines, problems arising from self-medication and sources of medicines used during self-medication. It was also accelerated by driving factors towards self-medication (Time, healthcare systems, nature of illness), individual factors (Education background, Knowledge acquired through other means, socioeconomic background and Self-reliance). In conclusion, Self-medication is rampant among students, and many do it irresponsibly like using wrong drugs for wrong indications and using drugs in wrong amounts due insufficient knowledge about drugs and obtaining information about drugs from unreliable sources. Students are well aware about health consequences of self-medication but the situation around them keeps them in the cycles of this practice. Thus, I recommend the National Drug Authority and Health workers to play their roles towards responsible self-medication.