Abstract:

Background: Self-medication is the selection and use of medicine by a patient without consultation of a physician; hence the patient diagnoses and decides the medication of his/her own choice. This can result into serious problem of antimicrobial resistance among other effects. This study aimed to provide prevalence and the associated factors for self-medication with antibiotics among university students at Saint Augustine University of Tanzania.

Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted, with the use of questionnaires with a sample size of 391. Stratified random sampling according to course and year of study was employed.

Results/Discussion: The results highlighted that 114 (29.2%) of the responding students had self-medicated with antibiotics in the last 6 months. Self-medication was more frequent among female respondents compared to the male respondents (15.4% vs 13.8%, female and male respectively). The most common symptoms reported by self-medication participants were Headache 20.14%, Coughing 18.71%, and Fever 16.55% the most common self-medicating antibiotics employed were Amoxicillin 44.70%, Metronidazole 23.48%, and Ciprofloxacin 9.85%.

Conclusion: Self-medication with antibiotics is practiced by more than a quarter of SAUT students. Amoxicillin is the leading self-medicated antibiotic. Most student self-medicate is response to an emergence illness. Factors associated with self-medication among SAUT students is gender. Other factors year of study, marital status and course had no significant association.