Self Medication and Associated Health Care Seeking Amongst Mothers of Children Aged Under 5 with Diarrhea and Respiratory Tract Infections in an Urban Slum

Introduction: 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. Aims & Objectives: 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. Place and duration of study: A cross-sectional analytical study conducted in Samsani-khui, an urban slum in district Lahore, from September 2016- February 2017. Material & Methods: 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. Results: 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). Conclusion: 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.