Antibiotic self-medication in Otuke district, northern Uganda: Prevalence and associated factors.

Antibiotic self-medication is a form of irrational drug use that contributes to antimicrobial resistance, which results in increasing health care costs and morbidity and mortality rates in the population. The misuse of antimicrobial agents is highly linked with the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance within the population globally. Unless addressed, antibiotic self-medication will drive the world back to the pre-antibiotic era, with people dying helplessly due to infectious diseases. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of antibiotic self-medication and its associated factors in the Otuke District, Northern Uganda. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in the Otuke Town Council, Otuke district. The data of adults aged 18 years and above were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire, and the data were coded and entered into SPSS software version 26. The data were descriptively analyzed for frequencies and percentages. Bivariant and multivariant analyses were performed to determine associations between the variables. Out of 385 participants, 68% self-medicated with antibiotics in the past 12 months. Freedom from drug use (AOR: 3.071; 95% CI: 1.203, 7.876) and unregulated use of antibiotics (AOR at 95% CI: 8.288 (2.815, 24.397)) were more likely to lead to ASM (p value <0.001). Other significant factors included knowledge of antibiotics, previous symptom experience, previous successful treatment, long waiting hours and poor staff attitudes (p value <0.05). The most common self-medicated antibiotics were amoxicillin, Ampiclox and metronidazole. Antibiotic self-medication in the Otuke district is very high due to the availability of medicines and lack of functional drug use regulatory frameworks. The district and government of Uganda should design and implement measures to mitigate this widespread antimicrobial misuse to prevent the development of antimicrobial resistance.