Objectives: 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.
Materials and methods: 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.
Results: 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.
Conclusion: 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.
Keywords: Antibiotic; prescription; primary care; self-medication.