TY - JOUR AU - Rabbiya Sarwar, AU - Hina Mahmood, AU - Hala Bashir Hashmi, AU - Fizza Anwar, AU - Shameen Mahmood, PY - 2020/12/03 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Self Medication and Associated Health Care Seeking Amongst Mothers of Children Aged Under 5 with Diarrhea and Respiratory Tract Infections in an Urban Slum JF - Proceedings JA - Proceedings S.Z.M.C VL - 34 IS - 2 SE - Articles DO - 10.47489/p000s342z7481-6mc UR - https://proceedings-szmc.org.pk/index.php/szmc/article/view/36 SP - 26-31 AB - <p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Self-medication practice in childhood illnesses is quite common in developing countries. Self-medication practices are found to be influencing healthcare seeking behavior in developing countries.</p><p><strong>Aims &amp;</strong> <strong>Objectives: </strong>To assess self-medication practices and its association with health care seeking in mothers of children aged under 5 with diarrheal and respiratory illness episodes residing in an urban slum.</p><p><strong>Place and</strong> <strong>duration of study: </strong>A cross-sectional analytical study conducted in Samsani-khui, an urban slum in district Lahore, from September 2016- February 2017.</p><p><strong>Material &amp; Methods:</strong> 422 mother-child units (only one child aged under 5 years) were recruited through systematic random sampling. Responses were recorded on a structured, self-constructed questionnaire about self-medication practices of mothers for the selected child during last 6 months in acute episodes of diarrhea or respiratory illness. Data was entered and analyzed on SPSS version 21. Fisher’s exact test was applied.</p><p><strong>Results:</strong> Mean age of mothers was 26.81 ± 4.744 years, 16% were illiterate, 44.3% had attained primary education and 92.65% were housewives. 70.62% children included in study were boys. 61.8% mothers never practiced self-medication in their child whereas 38.2% administered medicines occasionally, frequently or every time the child got ill. 92.5% of the mothers practicing self-medication admitted that self-medication is responsible for delay in health care seeking. Out of these mothers, 59% sought formal health care without delay for their child suffering from diarrhea or RTI during last 6 months. 70.8% children recovered completely after practicing self-medication, as reported by mothers. While 23.0% reported late recovery, 3.1% reported complications and 3.1% reported hospitalization after self-medication. A highly significant association was found between practice of self-medication and health care seeking behavior (p=.001).</p><p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> Practice of self-medication is present in one third of mothers of low income, literacy poor families. Mothers of this stratum showed poor perception about self-medication and as well as treatment delay. Self-medication practice strongly affects health care seeking behavior.</p> ER -