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The Potential Impact of Self-medication and Drug Misuse Practice Among Youth Population in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

Received: 29 January 2021    Accepted: 6 February 2021    Published: 23 February 2021
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Abstract

Self-medication refers to the act of medicating oneself with no guidance from a physician. There are sevral factors that promote self-medication along with drug misuse among the population. In the frame of developing countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), these factors include lack of enforcement of laws governing the pharmaceutical sector, poor mindset of the population as well as easy access to drugs without official medical prescriptions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent to which self-medication and drug misuse practices affect the youth Congolese population health in the DRC’s capital city, Kinshasa. Three sectors of Kinshasa were selected for a cross-sectional study conducted for five months (January to Mai 2020). Pharmacists or their auxiliairies were asked to draw up the list of ten drugs often purchased without medical prescriptions. In each of the selected pharmacies, 3 patients using self-medication were interviewed. A total of 120 phrarmacists or their auxiliairies and 360 patients (180 men and 180 women) were selected using systematic random sampling technique. Of the 120 questionnaires completed, a list of ten most used drugs in self-medication was established in the following dicreasing quantitative order: 106, 85, 83, 66, 66, 58, 51, 38, 29 and 23 pharmacists or their auxiliairies cited Amoxicillin capsule, Emergency Contraceptive Pill tablet, Paracetamol tablet, Dexamethasone tablet, Cyproheptadine tablet, Tetracyclin capsule, Levamisole tablet, Albendazole tablet, Quinine and Diclofenac injectables, respectively. Out of 360 questionnaires distributed, all medicines were administered by the route recommended by the physician except Dexamethasone tablet, Cyproheptadine tablet and Diclofenac injection where in 30.1%, 38.1% and 89.7% of self-medication cases the route of administration was other than the recommended route. From the recorded data, the age of most patients varied between 15-24 years old. Girls were more in self-medication than boys. Sometimes, the disease for which the drug was used, as well as the dosing, were found to be different from the instructions in patients’ leaflet. And lastly, for most patients, the main source of information was family and/or friends. This study demonstrated that the practice of self-medication is very widespread in Kinshasa, unfortunately even antibiotics are misused, exposing the population to high risk of antimicrobial resistance development. The present findings encourage further investigations at national level to better advise the dicision makers to take appropriate measures to substantially mitigate self-medication and drug misuse practices.

Published in American Journal of Biomedical and Life Sciences (Volume 9, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajbls.20210901.19
Page(s) 69-77
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Self-medication, Drug Misuse, Antimicribial Resistance, Drug Toxicity, Kinshasa/Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

References
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[13] PR. Shankar P. R., Partha P. Shenoy N. (2002). Self-medication and non-doctor prescription practices in Pokhara valley, Western Nepal: a questionnaire-based study. BMC Family Practice. 3: 17. https://doi:10.1186/1471-2296-3-7.
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[15] Shin-Yu Lu, Tzu-Fan Chang, Chih-Jen Lin. (2019) Treatment effectveness of levamisole plus prednisolone on oral lichen planus patients with emphasis on levamisole-induced agranulocytosis or pancytopenia. Journal of Formosan Medical Association. 118: 1193-1201. https://doi/10.1016/j.fma.2019.03.007.
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[18] Nsengi Y. Ntamabyaliro, Christian Burri et al. (2018). Drug use in the management of uncomplicated malaria in public health facilities in the DRC. Malaria Journal 17: 189-197. https://doi10.1186/s12936-018-2332-3.
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    Kalonji Katengele, Fumwakwau Kiniati, Nkanga Isalomboto, Didi Kialengila Mana. (2021). The Potential Impact of Self-medication and Drug Misuse Practice Among Youth Population in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. American Journal of Biomedical and Life Sciences, 9(1), 69-77. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbls.20210901.19

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    ACS Style

    Kalonji Katengele; Fumwakwau Kiniati; Nkanga Isalomboto; Didi Kialengila Mana. The Potential Impact of Self-medication and Drug Misuse Practice Among Youth Population in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Am. J. Biomed. Life Sci. 2021, 9(1), 69-77. doi: 10.11648/j.ajbls.20210901.19

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    AMA Style

    Kalonji Katengele, Fumwakwau Kiniati, Nkanga Isalomboto, Didi Kialengila Mana. The Potential Impact of Self-medication and Drug Misuse Practice Among Youth Population in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Am J Biomed Life Sci. 2021;9(1):69-77. doi: 10.11648/j.ajbls.20210901.19

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajbls.20210901.19,
      author = {Kalonji Katengele and Fumwakwau Kiniati and Nkanga Isalomboto and Didi Kialengila Mana},
      title = {The Potential Impact of Self-medication and Drug Misuse Practice Among Youth Population in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo},
      journal = {American Journal of Biomedical and Life Sciences},
      volume = {9},
      number = {1},
      pages = {69-77},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajbls.20210901.19},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbls.20210901.19},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajbls.20210901.19},
      abstract = {Self-medication refers to the act of medicating oneself with no guidance from a physician. There are sevral factors that promote self-medication along with drug misuse among the population. In the frame of developing countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), these factors include lack of enforcement of laws governing the pharmaceutical sector, poor mindset of the population as well as easy access to drugs without official medical prescriptions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent to which self-medication and drug misuse practices affect the youth Congolese population health in the DRC’s capital city, Kinshasa. Three sectors of Kinshasa were selected for a cross-sectional study conducted for five months (January to Mai 2020). Pharmacists or their auxiliairies were asked to draw up the list of ten drugs often purchased without medical prescriptions. In each of the selected pharmacies, 3 patients using self-medication were interviewed. A total of 120 phrarmacists or their auxiliairies and 360 patients (180 men and 180 women) were selected using systematic random sampling technique. Of the 120 questionnaires completed, a list of ten most used drugs in self-medication was established in the following dicreasing quantitative order: 106, 85, 83, 66, 66, 58, 51, 38, 29 and 23 pharmacists or their auxiliairies cited Amoxicillin capsule, Emergency Contraceptive Pill tablet, Paracetamol tablet, Dexamethasone tablet, Cyproheptadine tablet, Tetracyclin capsule, Levamisole tablet, Albendazole tablet, Quinine and Diclofenac injectables, respectively. Out of 360 questionnaires distributed, all medicines were administered by the route recommended by the physician except Dexamethasone tablet, Cyproheptadine tablet and Diclofenac injection where in 30.1%, 38.1% and 89.7% of self-medication cases the route of administration was other than the recommended route. From the recorded data, the age of most patients varied between 15-24 years old. Girls were more in self-medication than boys. Sometimes, the disease for which the drug was used, as well as the dosing, were found to be different from the instructions in patients’ leaflet. And lastly, for most patients, the main source of information was family and/or friends. This study demonstrated that the practice of self-medication is very widespread in Kinshasa, unfortunately even antibiotics are misused, exposing the population to high risk of antimicrobial resistance development. The present findings encourage further investigations at national level to better advise the dicision makers to take appropriate measures to substantially mitigate self-medication and drug misuse practices.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

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    JF  - American Journal of Biomedical and Life Sciences
    JO  - American Journal of Biomedical and Life Sciences
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    AB  - Self-medication refers to the act of medicating oneself with no guidance from a physician. There are sevral factors that promote self-medication along with drug misuse among the population. In the frame of developing countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), these factors include lack of enforcement of laws governing the pharmaceutical sector, poor mindset of the population as well as easy access to drugs without official medical prescriptions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent to which self-medication and drug misuse practices affect the youth Congolese population health in the DRC’s capital city, Kinshasa. Three sectors of Kinshasa were selected for a cross-sectional study conducted for five months (January to Mai 2020). Pharmacists or their auxiliairies were asked to draw up the list of ten drugs often purchased without medical prescriptions. In each of the selected pharmacies, 3 patients using self-medication were interviewed. A total of 120 phrarmacists or their auxiliairies and 360 patients (180 men and 180 women) were selected using systematic random sampling technique. Of the 120 questionnaires completed, a list of ten most used drugs in self-medication was established in the following dicreasing quantitative order: 106, 85, 83, 66, 66, 58, 51, 38, 29 and 23 pharmacists or their auxiliairies cited Amoxicillin capsule, Emergency Contraceptive Pill tablet, Paracetamol tablet, Dexamethasone tablet, Cyproheptadine tablet, Tetracyclin capsule, Levamisole tablet, Albendazole tablet, Quinine and Diclofenac injectables, respectively. Out of 360 questionnaires distributed, all medicines were administered by the route recommended by the physician except Dexamethasone tablet, Cyproheptadine tablet and Diclofenac injection where in 30.1%, 38.1% and 89.7% of self-medication cases the route of administration was other than the recommended route. From the recorded data, the age of most patients varied between 15-24 years old. Girls were more in self-medication than boys. Sometimes, the disease for which the drug was used, as well as the dosing, were found to be different from the instructions in patients’ leaflet. And lastly, for most patients, the main source of information was family and/or friends. This study demonstrated that the practice of self-medication is very widespread in Kinshasa, unfortunately even antibiotics are misused, exposing the population to high risk of antimicrobial resistance development. The present findings encourage further investigations at national level to better advise the dicision makers to take appropriate measures to substantially mitigate self-medication and drug misuse practices.
    VL  - 9
    IS  - 1
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Laboratory for Medicines Analysis and Health Products, Kinshasa XI, Democratic Republic of Congo

  • Coordination Center of Research and Documentation in the Social Sciences Serving Sub-saharan Africa, University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

  • Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Laboratory for Medicines Analysis and Health Products, Kinshasa XI, Democratic Republic of Congo

  • Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Laboratory for Medicines Analysis and Health Products, Kinshasa XI, Democratic Republic of Congo

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