Factors Affecting Prevalence of Self Medication of Antibiotics Among Adult Population in Ishaka-Bushenyi Municipality

ABSTRACT Introduction: The research deals with the factors affecting the prevalence of self-medication of antibiotics among adult population in Ishaka-Bushenyi Municipality. It was guided by the following objectives: to determine the prevalence of self-medication of antibiotics and other miscellaneous issues among the adult population in Ishaka-Bushenyi Municipality, to establish the socio-demographic characteristics of adult population engaged in self - medication of antibiotics in Ishaka-Bushenyi Municipality, and to establish the factors affecting self-medication of antibiotics among adult population in Ishaka-Bushenyi Municipality. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in Ishaka-Bushenyi Municipality from April2018 to December, 2018. A pretested self-administered questionnaire was used to select 3 84 participants residing in the area, who reported to have felt sick in the last period of one year using simple random sampling method. The data obtained were entered into Microsoft Office Excel2010 and imported into STATA 13 for analysis. Both univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were carried out together with descriptive summary statistics using STAT A 13. Results: The prevalence of self-medication of antibiotics was high at f78.13%j. Friends (30.60%) and previous prescription (28.83%) were the source of information for the selfmedication that was mostly reported. The most common indications that made respondents to use antibiotics were cough, cold and sore throat (31.67%) followed by headache, fever and malaria (23.13%). Metronidazole (19.57%), Amoxicillin (12.81 %), Doxycline (12.10%), Ciprofloxacin (11.03%) and Sepuin (11.03%) were the most self-medicated antibiotics. Quick relief (27.76%) and no need to visit a doctor for minor illness (26.33%) were the main reasons in favour of this practice. In the univariate analysis with respect to the relationship between self-medication and sociodemographics, only age (P=