Self-Medication Practice and Associated Factors in under-Five Children by Parents in Bortown, Jonglei State, South Sudan

Abstract

Parents who self-medicate children under-fiverisk exposing them to serious health consequencessuch as drug resistance, worst treatment outcome and toxicity. Despitethesehealth consequences, self-medication among children under-five years in BorTown is on the rise. Thus, the study sought to determine self-medication practice and associated factors among children under-five years in BorTown, South Sudan.Descriptive cross-sectional design, which involvedstratifying the population by location and drawing representative sample using probability proportional to size formula,was utilized. 373 householdswith children under-fivewere chosen using simple random selection. In-person interviews using pre-test questionnaire were conducted. SPSS was used to analyse data. Data was summarized using descriptive statisticsand the relationshipbetween constructs was determined using chi-square. All statistical tests were deemed significant atP-value <0.05. The findings of the study indicated that self-medication was practicedby 88.3% (n=323/).Women were the majority (66.4%),and farmers made up 91.1% of theself-medicating population. Self-medication was associated to age (p -value 0.005)and occupation(p -value 0.008). Leftover medicationsfrom prior treatments werethe leading cause of self-medication (98.1%), followed by the low cost/no consultation or laboratory expenses(97.8%). 37.2% of self-medication medicines came from unused prescriptions, and 34.4% came from local pharmacies. Self-medication was most often driven by diarrhoea (40.7%), followed by fever (20.5%). Antimalarial(36.6%) and antimicrobials (29%) were the main medicines used for self-medication.Factors causing self-medication, features of self-medication and perceptions on self-medication were associated to self-medication (p-value 0.000). Self-medication, irrational use of medicines and myths onself-medicationare public health problemsin BorTown. Therefore, this study called for public health education and promotion for parents and health care providers, and should stress risks associated with parents’ self-diagnose of children under-five, indiscriminate use of antimalarial and antimicrobials, inappropriate sources of medicines,and wrong perceptions on self-medication.