Public Patterns and Determinants of Antibiotic Self-Medication and Antibiotic Knowledge in Southern Jordan
Antibiotic self-medication, which refers to acquisition and using antibiotics to treat infections based on personal experience and/or without a doctor’s advice or prescription, is a significant public health issue jeopardizing patient health outcomes. The purpose of the present cross-sectional onlin...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Antibiotics |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6382/13/1/98 |
| _version_ | 1827372863577915392 |
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| author | Alaa Al-Tarawneh Tasneem Ali Ghaith M Al-Taani |
| author_facet | Alaa Al-Tarawneh Tasneem Ali Ghaith M Al-Taani |
| author_sort | Alaa Al-Tarawneh |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Antibiotic self-medication, which refers to acquisition and using antibiotics to treat infections based on personal experience and/or without a doctor’s advice or prescription, is a significant public health issue jeopardizing patient health outcomes. The purpose of the present cross-sectional online survey was to assess the frequency of self-medication among the general public in various geographical locations in southern Jordan, as well as to examine the determinants to self-medication. The survey was distributed through several social media networks over the period November–December 2022, and included demographic information as well as items related to the use and abuse of antibiotics, information sources about antibiotics, the duration of use of antibiotics, and assessment of the public knowledge about appropriate antibiotic use. Inferential analysis, such as the Chi-Square test and logistic regression, were adopted to assess the associations between the different variables with self-medication. A total of 984 respondents were enrolled in the study. Of these, 752 had been using antibiotics during the last year. However, the self-medicating cases were 413 of the 752. The main source of information about the utilization of antibiotics among participants in the survey was pharmacists. The participants commonly (36.0%) tended to use antibiotics until the symptoms disappeared. Nearly half of the respondents reported usually taking antibiotics for treating a runny nose (rhinorrhea). The logistic regression analysis indicated that self-medication with antibiotics was significantly associated with female gender (<i>p</i>-value < 0.001), low educational level (<i>p</i>-value = 0.014), rural living location (<i>p</i>-value 0.003), no health insurance (<i>p</i>-value = 0.001) and occupation (<i>p</i>-value = 0.005). Meanwhile age had no significant relationship to self-medication. Finally, the results revealed poor understanding of key appropriate antibiotic usage, which inevitably influences self-medication practice. It is crucial to come up with several programs and governmental policies to suppress widespread antibiotic self-medication as it will affect the health of future generations of Jordanian citizens. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T11:07:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5ab7c16a2af64077a279db75861f8a71 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2079-6382 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T11:07:11Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Antibiotics |
| spelling | doaj.art-5ab7c16a2af64077a279db75861f8a712024-01-26T14:38:53ZengMDPI AGAntibiotics2079-63822024-01-011319810.3390/antibiotics13010098Public Patterns and Determinants of Antibiotic Self-Medication and Antibiotic Knowledge in Southern JordanAlaa Al-Tarawneh0Tasneem Ali1Ghaith M Al-Taani2Department of Allied Medical Sciences, Karak University College, Al-Balqa Applied University, Karak 19117, JordanDepartment of Allied Medical Sciences, Karak University College, Al-Balqa Applied University, Karak 19117, JordanDepartment of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Yarmouk University, Irbid 21163, JordanAntibiotic self-medication, which refers to acquisition and using antibiotics to treat infections based on personal experience and/or without a doctor’s advice or prescription, is a significant public health issue jeopardizing patient health outcomes. The purpose of the present cross-sectional online survey was to assess the frequency of self-medication among the general public in various geographical locations in southern Jordan, as well as to examine the determinants to self-medication. The survey was distributed through several social media networks over the period November–December 2022, and included demographic information as well as items related to the use and abuse of antibiotics, information sources about antibiotics, the duration of use of antibiotics, and assessment of the public knowledge about appropriate antibiotic use. Inferential analysis, such as the Chi-Square test and logistic regression, were adopted to assess the associations between the different variables with self-medication. A total of 984 respondents were enrolled in the study. Of these, 752 had been using antibiotics during the last year. However, the self-medicating cases were 413 of the 752. The main source of information about the utilization of antibiotics among participants in the survey was pharmacists. The participants commonly (36.0%) tended to use antibiotics until the symptoms disappeared. Nearly half of the respondents reported usually taking antibiotics for treating a runny nose (rhinorrhea). The logistic regression analysis indicated that self-medication with antibiotics was significantly associated with female gender (<i>p</i>-value < 0.001), low educational level (<i>p</i>-value = 0.014), rural living location (<i>p</i>-value 0.003), no health insurance (<i>p</i>-value = 0.001) and occupation (<i>p</i>-value = 0.005). Meanwhile age had no significant relationship to self-medication. Finally, the results revealed poor understanding of key appropriate antibiotic usage, which inevitably influences self-medication practice. It is crucial to come up with several programs and governmental policies to suppress widespread antibiotic self-medication as it will affect the health of future generations of Jordanian citizens.https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6382/13/1/98demographicknowledgeself-medicationantibioticssouth Jordan |
| spellingShingle | Alaa Al-Tarawneh Tasneem Ali Ghaith M Al-Taani Public Patterns and Determinants of Antibiotic Self-Medication and Antibiotic Knowledge in Southern Jordan Antibiotics demographic knowledge self-medication antibiotics south Jordan |
| title | Public Patterns and Determinants of Antibiotic Self-Medication and Antibiotic Knowledge in Southern Jordan |
| title_full | Public Patterns and Determinants of Antibiotic Self-Medication and Antibiotic Knowledge in Southern Jordan |
| title_fullStr | Public Patterns and Determinants of Antibiotic Self-Medication and Antibiotic Knowledge in Southern Jordan |
| title_full_unstemmed | Public Patterns and Determinants of Antibiotic Self-Medication and Antibiotic Knowledge in Southern Jordan |
| title_short | Public Patterns and Determinants of Antibiotic Self-Medication and Antibiotic Knowledge in Southern Jordan |
| title_sort | public patterns and determinants of antibiotic self medication and antibiotic knowledge in southern jordan |
| topic | demographic knowledge self-medication antibiotics south Jordan |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6382/13/1/98 |
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