Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Self-medication with Antibiotics among General Public in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal: A Cross-sectional Survey

Abstract

Background: The inappropriate use of antibiotics has led to development and spread of bacterial resistance globally resulting in thousands of deaths every year. In Nepal, the prevalence of self-medication with antibiotics is higher. This study is designed to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of self-medication with antibiotics among the general public. Methods: The study was a cross-sectional survey conducted during the month of May, 2018 among 437 general public of Ward number 16 of Kathmandu Metropolitan using standardized questionnaire which has been validated and reliability tested. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the general characteristics (socio-demographic, socio-economic and distance from nearest health facility) and level of knowledge, attitude and practice. Chi-square test was used to determine the association between general characteristics and level of knowledge, attitude and practice and multivariate analysis was used when needed (multinomial logistic regression). Result: Out of 437 participants, 31.1% had poor knowledge on antibiotics, 16.2% had poor attitude while around 10.0% self-medicated with antibiotics within the last 1 year. Gender, marital status, education, occupation and income were associated with level of knowledge while age, marital status, education and occupation were associated with level of attitude at 95% confidence interval whereas none were associated with level of practice. Being male, single, education of high school or lower, and lower income were statistically significant with poor knowledge (p-value < 0.05) while being single, educational of high school or lower, with employment and in non-health related field were found to be independently associated with poor attitude (p-value < 0.05). Conclusion: Although, low prevalence of self-medication with antibiotics in this study indicates good practice which could possibly be due to urban population, low knowledge on antibiotics underscore the need of educational interventions from the government on rational use of antibiotics targeting both rural and urban population.