A Systematic Review on Self-Medication Practice in Nepal

Abstract

Self-medication practice is still prevalent mostly in developing countries where healthcare system is not affordable and accessible for low-income people, further depends on many factors. This study focused on providing an over view of the literature on self-medication practices in Nepal.Various search engines namely PubMed, PubMed central, Google Scholar and ResearchGate were used. Selection of the articles were done based on the year of publication, originality of primary data, recall period, study objectives, and study location.

The literature from various database provided 602 studies. After adjustment for duplicates and exclusion criteria, 19 articles were found suitable for the review. The average reported prevalence rate of a self-medication practice was 63.22% with a range from 38.2% to 92.4.Commonly used class was analgesic/antipyretics.Source of information for self-medication were obtained from previous experience. Common illness was fever. Reasons of self-medication practice were illness being mild.The self-medication practice was found to be prevalent in Nepal based on the reviewed studies and it varied in different populations and regions of the country. Emphasis should be given for educating the public on the type of illnesses that can be self-diagnosed and self-treated and the type of drugs to be used for self-medication.