Antibiotics self-medication among medical students in a new medical college at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi, Nigeria

Life as a medical student is often full of stress which could be physical, social, emotional and economical, especially in developing countries. Of recent, there has been an increased effort to combat self-medication which has remained a global public health burden since antiquity. Trainee health workers are particularly vulnerable to engage in self-medication practice which has remain a great panacea mitigating the efforts to combat resistance to common antibiotics in communities. This study aims to assess antibiotics self-medication among undergraduate medical students in Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi Nigeria. An exploratory cross-sectional study was conducted at college of medical sciences Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi between June and July 2018. First and second year registered undergraduate medical students were specifically enrolled in the study. A sample size of 61 participants was determined by using a single population proportion formula and a close ended 25 items self-administered study tool was developed and piloted following a review of the relevant literature. All responses were analyzed using SPSS Version 21 and STATA Version 13 software for statistical analysis. A total of Eighty-one (81) medical Students were enrolled in the study. There were 39 (48.1%) males and 42 (51.9%) females. The median age among all respondents was 20 years. 41% of all the students reported having selfmedication. (22) 27.2% of the respondent’s reasons for self-medication was “Doctors gives same drug”, for (20) 24.7% “the disease was mild”, while (16) 19.7% “knew the drug to take”, while (9) 11.1% “saves time” in self-medication and (2) 2.5% said it “saved cost”. On logistic regression, gender remains the statistically significant explanatory variable, Wald Chi-square test 6.050 odds ratio 2.019 (P-value: 0.0014). The prevalence of SM among medical students is high in among Medical Students in ATBU Bauchi Nigeria. Targeted campaign programs to decrease SM among medical students in North East Nigeria as a whole, are required. Enforcement of laws and policies on un-prescribed drugs and continuous monitoring of dispensaries/drugstores and other outlets to issue drugs only on prescription are necessary to reduce self-medication.