Self-medication practice in Yemen and the role of community pharmacy dispensers, pharmacy education, and health authorities: a mixedmethods study / Sami Mohammed Hamood Albawani

• Main Author: Hamood Albawani, Sami Mohammed
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Pharmaceutical technology; Pharmaceutical supplies; sami
• Online Access: https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/70188/; https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/70188/1/70188.pdf

Self-medication is a common practice worldwide. However, irrational use of drugs can lead to serious side effects, toxicity and drug interactions. Very few studies have been reported about self-medication practice in Yemen and no studies were found in the literature regarding the role of community drug dispensers, pharmacy education and health care authorities in Yemen. The purpose of this study is to evaluate selfmedication practice in Yemen, to study the underlying reasons and associated factors, and to investigate the role of community pharmacy dispensers, pharmacy education and health care authorities in such practice. Two different approaches were used in this study. The first approach was a quantitative method; the validated questionnaire was developed and administered to consumers attending community pharmacies in Sana'a City in a cross-sectional design and different variables were investigated for possible association and correlation with self-medication practice. The second approach was an exploratory qualitative method; in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with four different groups; community pharmacy consumers, community pharmacy dispensers, pharmacy lecturers and health administrative staff. Four different topic guides were used for each group. For the quantitative part, SPSS version 21 was used to conduct the statistical analysis. Chi-square and multiple logistic regression were used in data analysis. For the qualitative part, thematic qualitative analysis was used. All interviews were audiorecorded, transcribed verbatim and translated to English. Quantitative findings showed that the prevalence of selfmedication practice is among the highest in the world (90.7%). Self-medication with antibiotics among consumers was found to be alarmingly high as well (87.1%). The most common predictors for self-medication were the trust among respondents toward physicians (p= 0.001) and community drug dispensers (p= 0.001), ease of access to medical centers (p= 0.013), smoking history (p= 0.020), ...