DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2017.v05i04.033

Pages: 1385-1390

The practice of self-medication is common in India and many other parts of the world. It involves the use of medicines to treat certain ailments without consulting a medical practitioner and without any medical supervision. It has been reported that self-medication in children accounted for 38.5% of total drug use. Self-medication with antimicrobials is an emerging problem worldwide, especially in developing countries. It leads to the emergence of pathogenic resistance apart from other drug related problems. This was a descriptive analytical study conducted on 640 paediatric patients in the paediatric outpatients department of a MKCG Medical College, Berhampur, India. Patients with a history of use of an anti-microbial without a medical prescription in the previous 15 days were included in the study. The data was presented as frequency and percentages. The prevalence of antimicrobial self-medication in children was 27.03%. Highest prevalence of antimicrobial self-medication was observed in the school going, urban, male children belonging to literate parents with a single child. The commonest anti-microbial used for self-medication in the study was Azithromycin. The common reasons cited for self-medication were, lack of time for parents to go to a doctor and lack of affordability to see a physician. The most common symptom that led to self-medication was fever followed by common cold.