"Abstract:

Background: Self-medication is still a problem in developing countries like Tanzania attributed to easy access of prescribed antibiotics over the counter, poverty of citizens, healthcare provider’s recklessness and negative perceptions that people have on physicians. It is one of the causes of the increased global antimicrobial resistance which might influence, prolonged illnesses, hospital stays and a need to introduce expensive medicines in health system. Therefore this study aims at assessing the prevalence and factors influencing parents self-medicating under-five children at Nyamagana district.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study done from 1st to 28th April 2024 among parents and caretakers of under-fives in Mwanza city. Data was collected with a validated questionnaire the entered, cleaned and analysed using Microsoft excel and STATA software. Pearson chi-square test was used to determine the statistical significance of p<0.05 for several factors and all the results were presented in figures and tables.

Results: From 383 participants, 82.51 were biological mothers and 66.84% lived in the urban, with 68.15% having an average income. Prevalence of self-medication by parents to their children was 77.81%. Common used antibiotics used were amoxicillin and co-trimoxazole and common diseases for self-medicating were malaria, cough and headache. Major reasons for self-medicating were, easy availability of medicines without prescription (34.46%), higher costs to seeing doctors (20.10%) and having left-over drugs (18.80%).

Conclusion: The prevalence of parents’ and caretakers’ self-medicating under-fives was very high, despite knowledge and awareness being high. Clear interventions should be put in place starting from the community level, health facilities, healthcare providers, stakeholders, government and the country at large. This will help to reduce the burden of AMR and improve treatment of under-fives."