ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res.

9(04), 455-459

Journal Homepage: -www.journalijar.com

Article DOI:10.21474/IJAR01/12709
DOI URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/12709

RESEARCH ARTICLE
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE PREVALENCE OF SELF-MEDICATION AMONG NIGERIAN
UNDERGRADUATES

Obinna T. Asogwa1 and Kelechi T. Ugwu2

1. Department of Basic Sciences, Institute of Management and Technology Enugu, Nigeria.
2. Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, Institute of Management and Technology Enugu, Nigeria.
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Manuscript Info Abstract
……………………. ………………………………………………………………
Manuscript History The current study's objective was to investigate the prevalence of self-
Received: 10 February 2021 medication among university undergraduates and compare the practice
Final Accepted: 16 March 2021 of self-medication between school residents and home residents. Three
Published: April 2021 hundred and twenty-six (n=326) undergraduates pooled from three
Key words: -
tertiary institutions in Nigeria participated in the study. The participants
Self-Medication, Undergraduates, completed a self-report measure assessing their engagement in self-
School Residents, Home Residents medication. The result showed that 64.4% of the participants had
practiced self-medication, while 34.6% did not participate in self-
medication. Also, an independent t-test analysis revealed that self-
medication is prevalent among school residents.

Copy Right, IJAR, 2021, All rights reserved.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………....
Introduction: -
Access to medicines is an essential factor in the provision of efficient health care service of any Nation. Perhaps the
primary healthcare delivery performance's major indices remain improved access to essential drugs(Chukwuani,
Olugboji, & Ugbene, 2006). However, it is all humans' right to access quality and effective medicines (Ekeigwe,
2019).Access to drugs without a prescription is a major contributing factor for self-medication practices (Aziz, et al.,
2008). There is a growing concern about the persistent act of self-medication, especially among young persons. The
trend could have a negative implication on the health and well-being of an individual. It could lead to several
problems such as an increase in drug resistance, rise in drug use per capita, and side effects (Karimy et al, 2019),
serious health hazards, missed diagnosis, delayed appropriate treatment (Zeru et al, 2020).

Self-medication practice denotes taking drugs without the prescription of health care professionals (Kassie et al,
2018). Accordingly, Fasoro et al., (2018) referred to self-medication as using drugs to treat self-diagnosed disorders,
intermittent or continued use of previously prescribed medication for chronic or recurrent disease or symptoms.
People use it to treat any disease symptoms or minor ailments by their self-initiative (Jain, Malvi, & Purviya, 2011).
People rely on past prescription methods, advice from relevant others, personal feelings, and thoughts to prescribe
drugs for themselves without consulting medical experts for measures. Bennadi (2013) included the pharmacist and
suggestions from advertisements in newspapers or popular magazines among the common self-medication source.
Interestingly, people are practicing self-medication all the time in the form of taken care of their health(Vizhi &
Senapathi, 2010).However, the concept of self-medication entails not only the self-administration of pharmaceutical
drugs. However, it includes the consumption of herbal medicines (Papia, 2005). Equally, the appropriate practice of
self-medication could be beneficial to consumers in terms of self-reliance and decreased expense (Shafie et al,
2018). Also, reduce the risk of non-treatment of certain illnesses and limit overcrowding in health institutions.

Corresponding Author: - Kelechi T. Ugwu

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Address: -Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, Institute of Management and Technology
Enugu, Nigeria. Email; [email protected]
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Previous studies suggest that the practice of self-medication is common in developing countries (Auta et al, 2012;
Islam & Hossain, 2019; Araia, Gebregziabher, & Mesfun, 2019; Gras et al, 2020), including Nigeria(Oyediran,
Ayandiran, Olatubi, & Olabode, 2019). The behavior of prescribing drugs to one's self assumes a normal stance to
most individuals. The trend is pervasive in Nigerian society to the extent that some mothers administer unprescribed
medicine to their children, especially infants and under-five children (Salami & Adesanwo, 2015), and this action
contributes to infant/child mortality in Nigeria. The common belief among some mothers is that babies often
develop a fever. Consequently, this belief motivates the self-drug prescription attitudes of some women. Adolescents
have been rated high in self-medication behaviors. Research indicates a high rate of adolescent participation in self-
medication in Nigeria (e.g.,Ojeleye, Oyeleye, & Ofi, 2016). The involvement of young people in the practice of self-
medication constitutes a significant health care challenge. This young person depends on their assessment of their
health and the application of peer references to suggest prescription, probably due to self-esteem and other
psychosocial variables. However, the present study is concerned with self-medication among students at the tertiary
education level.

Over the years, several studies have been dedicated to investigating the prevalence, patterns, and determinants of
self-medication among university students especially, in developing countries(see Hussain & Khanum, 2008;
Malakeh & Andaleeb, 2018; Sulayman et al., 2020; Mustafa & Rohra, 2017; Helal & Abou-ElWafa, 2017; Waqar,
Al-Khayat, & Khan, 2019; Haroun & Al-kayali, 2017; Núñeza, Tresierra-Ayalab, & Gil-Olivares, 2016; Hertz et al.,
2019; AlRaddadi et al., 2017).A common feature among the literature is that they implicated university students in
self-medicating behaviors, suggesting that they are common among university students (Alves, Precioso, & Becona,
2020). For example, the trend has been widely explored in Nigerian universities. The findings confirm the
widespread phenomenon among undergraduates. For instance, Osemene and Lamikanra (2012) found age, gender,
and student's level in the university as factors influencing students' self-medication practices.

Similarly, research indicates that most Nigerian students attributed the cause of their self-medication practice to cost,
prior knowledge about the illness andits treatment procedure, the mildness of the illness, previous self-medication
outcome, and the attitude of health care practitioners (Idoko et al., 2018; Auta et al., 2012). Additionally, Amusa,
Badaki, and Sanusi (2015) revealed that university students engage in self-medication due to negative perception,
while Ansam(2007) reported that university students engage in self-medicating behaviordue toscarcityof medical
practitioners, cost, and knowledge about drugs. Equally, Khalid et al. (2019),Awosusi and Konwea (2015),and
Fadare and Tamuno (2011) noted that amoxicillin, Ampicillin/Cloxacillin, Ciprofloxacin, malaria drugs,
andpainkillerswere the most commonly over the counter drugs self-prescribed mainly by the students.

The present study

The incidence of self-medication has been well explored in various aspects, and literature indicates that the
phenomenon is pervasive in tertiary institutions. The decline in seeking medical advice from professionals
constitutes health risky behavior capable of compromising well-being and leading to psychological dysfunction.
Also, a self-medicating attitude contributes to drug addiction observed among university students. This study's
primary purpose is to investigate the student's residency as a variable capable of influencing a student's self-
medicating behavior. It is assumed that the students who reside in the hostels/lodge engage in self-medication
compared to their counterparts who come from their homes. In this study, students who reside in the campus hostels,
including those living in private lodges around the institutions, were classified as school residents. Students
commuting from their homes were regarded as home residents. In other words, the present study is aimed to
compare these groups of students in relation to self-medication behaviors. It is hypothesized that self-medication
practice will be more pervasive among the school residents than their home residents' counterparts.

Method: -
The present study adopted cross-sectional survey design. The study population comprised students from three higher
learning institutions in Nigeria (namely: Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Kogi State University,
and the University of Nigeria). Three hundred and twenty-seven students comprising males and females (n=326),
were randomly selected as participants for the study. The participants included the students who reside in the school
hostels/lodges (school residents) and those who live with their parents/guardians (home residents).

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Measure: -
Self-medication was measured using a self-developed instrument following a review of relevant literature. The 10-
item Linkert type instrument is scored in a 5-point response format with high scores indicating self-medication
practice. The reliability of the scale was ascertained following a pilot study. Observation of the Cronbach's alpha
coefficients revealed acceptable levels of internal consistency reliabilities of the instrument, which exceeded the
cutoff rules-of-the thumb of .70 as recommended for study purposes(Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2013).

Result: -
Table 1: - Table showing the percentage score of the prevalence of self-medication practice among the participants.
Self-medication score N %
Self-medication 210 64.4
No self-medication 116 35.6
Total 326 100
From the above table, it is observed that 64.4% of the participants have engaged in self-medication practice. In
comparison, 35.6% have not been involved in self-medication practice.

Table 2: - Mean, standard deviation, and t-test comparison of school residents and home residents on self-
medication practice.
Source of variation N M SD MD df t Sig
School resident 186 0.83 0.38 0.44
Home resident 140 0.39 0.49 324 8.869 .000
A t-test analysis was conducted to compare any significant difference between the school residents and the home
residents on the practice of self-medication. There was a significant difference in the scores for school residents (M=
0.83, SD= 0.38), and home residents (M= 0.39, SD= 0.49. t (324) = 8.869, p= .000. Meaning that students who
reside in the institution's hostel or lodges within the institution practice self-medication more than their counterpart
that comes from their home.

Discussion: -
The current study focused on investigating the prevalence of self-medication among university undergraduates and
comparing self-medication between students who live in the school hostels or stay in a rented lodge around the
school the students who come to class from their respective homes. Firstly, the result found that most of the
participants have practiced or still practicing self-medication. This finding appears to be in line with previous
literature (e.g., Fasoro et al., 2018; Idoko et al., 2018; Osemene & Lamikanra, 2012; Khalid et al., 2019), suggesting
that the practice of self-medication is persistent among university undergraduates in Nigeria. As such, it could be
said that undergraduates are more exposed to the dangers of non-prescribed drugs.

As expected, the t-test conducted to determine the difference between the school residents and the home residents on
the practice of self-medication showed that self-medication is prevalent among the school residents and in the
hypothesized directions. The finding suggests that staying in a school hostelor the lodge as a student increases the
chance of engaging in self-medication. Whereas, staying with parents/ guardians while been a university student
seems not to favor self-medication. This probable cause of the high rate of self-medication among the school
residents could be attributed to the findings of (Auta, et al., 2012), which posits that the prevalence of medicine
storage in students' roomsleads to the practice of self-medication. Indeed, having leftover drugs, probably remains of
the previous prescription, could motivate a person to continue with the drugs in response to health symptoms.

Nevertheless, the onset of symptoms requires a medical test or expert consultation and not the other way round.
However, students who have had a successful cure following a self-medication practice are mainly preoccupied with
assessing symptoms and possible over-the-counter drugs. In the absence of parents/guardians, school residents take
absolute control of treatment, especially when the illness is perceived as mild.

Limitations, strengths, and future directions

This study encountered a particular limitation that needed to be reported. For instance, data for the research was
collected based on only self-report measures, thereby raisingthe issue of common method variance. This study
contributes to the literature by extending the risk factors associated with the prevalence of self-medication to school

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residence. The study alsoadds to the area of health psychology by providing further support to the idea that self-
medication is prevalent among university undergraduates. Besides, to our knowledge, this is the firststudy that has
attempted to synthesize the gap between school residents and home residents in relation to self-medication practice
in Nigeria's university context. Future researchers are encouraged to utilize data from other sources such as the
students' friends, family relations, and neighbors.

Conclusion:-
This study is meant to study the prevalence of self-medication among university undergraduates and to determine
whether there is a difference between school residents and home residents relating to the practice of self-medication.
Indeed, the results support the existing literature,which suggests that self-medication is persistent among university
students, thus broadening our understanding of the difference between school residents and home residents relating
to self-medication. However, the current study recommends that futureresearch investigate other possible
influencing variables, such as health beliefs, health self-efficacy, in a more representative sample of university
undergraduates andnon-educated youth.

Ethical considerations
The researchers tried to abide by every ethical standard in the process of the study. The participants were fully aware
of the study's purpose, and their involvement was made voluntary. Most importantly, their personal information was
never requested.

Funding
The study was funded by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TetFund)

Informed consent
The research participants were informed of the study's purpose and were advised to withdraw from the study
whenever they wish to, no matter the level of the study since the participation was voluntary.

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