Assessment of Self-Medication Practices and Its Associated Factors among Undergraduates of a Private University in Nigeria

Background. Self-medication is the use of drugs to treat self-diagnosed disorders or symptoms or the intermittent or continued use of prescribed drug for chronic or recurrent disease or symptoms, and it is mostly common in developing countries. (is study therefore assessed the practice of self-medication among undergraduate students of a private university in Nigeria. Methods. (e study employed a descriptive cross-sectional design. A pretested questionnaire was selfadministered to 384 undergraduate students of the university. Data were analysed and summarised using descriptive and inferential statistics such as chi-squared and Fisher’s exact tests. Results. Overall, 297 (81.8%) undergraduate students practiced self-medication. About 71% of the students had used analgesic, antibiotics (10.5%), and antimalarial drugs (33%) without prescription within one month prior to the survey. (e most commonly used drug for self-medication was paracetamol (75.1%). Furthermore, self-medication was found to be significantly associated with age (p � 0.021), gender (p < 0.001), college (p � 0.025), and year of study (p � 0.004). Some of the reasons why undergraduate students practiced self-medication were because of the unfriendly attitude of health care workers (27.7%), lack of time to go to school clinic (26.7%), school clinic is too far from hostel (15.3%), and drugs prescribed in the school clinic do not improve health condition (15.3%). Conclusion. Majority of the students attributed the practice of self-medication to unfriendly attitude of health care workers in the university clinic

Assessment of Self-Medication Practices and Its AssociatedFactors among Undergraduates of a Private University in Nigeria

Self-medication is theuse of drugs to treat self-diagnosed disorders or symptoms or the intermittent orcontinued use of prescribed drug for chronic or recurrent disease or symptoms, and it is mostly common in developingcountries. (is study therefore assessed the practice of self-medication among undergraduate students of a private universityin Nigeria.Methods. (e study employed a descriptive cross-sectional design. A pretested questionnaire was self-administered to 384 undergraduate students of the university. Data were analysed and summarised using descriptiveand inferential statistics such as chi-squared and Fisher’s exact tests.Results. Overall, 297 (81.8%) undergraduate studentspracticed self-medication. About 71% of the students had used analgesic, antibiotics (10.5%), and antimalarial drugs (33%)without prescription within one month prior to the survey. (e most commonly used drug for self-medication wasparacetamol (75.1%). Furthermore, self-medication was found to be significantly associated with age (p�0.021), gender(p<0.001), college (p�0.025), and year of study (p�0.004). Some of the reasons why undergraduate students practicedself-medication were because of the unfriendly attitude of health care workers (27.7%), lack of time to go to school clinic(26.7%), school clinic is too far from hostel (15.3%), and drugs prescribed in the school clinic do not improve healthcondition (15.3%).Conclusion. Majority of the students attributed the practice of self-medication to unfriendly attitude ofhealth care workers in the university clinic

Breast Cancer Trend: A Case Study of a Tertiary Health Institution in Nigeria

Background: Breast cancer is a major global health problem in women from both developing and developed countries. As the leading cause of death among women, breast cancer has contributed 19.5% to the mortality rate among women in Nigeria. This study investigated the trend of breast cancer among women who attended Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria. Methods: This retrospective study examined the trend of breast cancer over a period of eight years and determined the most affected age group. Participants consisted of patients registered in the cancer registry who had histologically confirmed breast cancer. Data of 362 patients were examined between March and April 2016. Data were analyzed and presented using descriptive (frequency, charts, and percentages) and inferential statistics (Fisher’s exact) for hypothesis testing. Results: Findings of this study revealed that the mean age of the participants was 45.04±16.94 years and all patients involved were females. The age group 20-39 years was most affected by breast cancer with a proportion of 41.7%. This study revealed a relationship between breast cancer classification and age of patients (P=0.011). Almost all (94.3%) cases seen within this time period were malignant. Conclusion: Healthcare professionals should place more emphasis on prevention of breast cancer across all age groups, especially young adults. These young adults constitute the larger percentage of the adult population. An increase in mortality rate in this age group will reduce the labor force and affect the nation’s economy