Self-Medication with Analgesics among Community Pharmacy Clients in Yenagoa, Nigeria: Patterns, Demographic Correlates and Public Health Implications

Abstract

Background: Self-medication is a global public health practice conventionally dominated by analgesics, antipyretics and antimicrobials, yet the demographic structure of this behaviour and its association with information sources remain poorly characterised in Nigerian community pharmacy settings. Objective: To determine the prevalence, patterns and demographic correlates of self-medication among community pharmacy clients in Yenagoa Local Government Area (LGA), Bayelsa State, Nigeria, with particular attention to analgesic use and headache as the leading drug category and indication, respectively. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted among 554 adult clients of community pharmacies in Yenagoa LGA, selected through stratified random sampling and interviewed using a structured, supervisor-validated questionnaire. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, self-medication practice, drug categories, indications and information sources were analysed descriptively; Pearson's chi-square tests, supplemented by Cramér's V as a measure of effect size, were used to test associations between socio-demographic variables and drug category, indication and information source. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05. Results: Of the 554 respondents, 327 (59.0%) reported self-medicating in the preceding six months. Analgesics (‘pain killers’) were the most frequently self-medicated drug category (30.9%), ahead of antibiotics (13.5%), antimalarials (10.1%), and cold/flu preparations and antidiarrhoeal agents (8.6% each). Correspondingly, headache was the leading self-reported indication (26.3%), ahead of body pain (16.5%), cough and common cold (14.1%) and fever (13.1%). Social media was the leading information source underlying self-medication (33.9%), ahead of personal knowledge (31.5%) and advice from a doctor or pharmacist (17.4%). Drug category was strongly associated with gender (χ²=298.20, df=13, p<0.001, Cramér's V=0.955), and indication was strongly associated with age band (χ²=767.31, df=27, p<0.001, Cramér's V=0.884). Conclusion: Analgesic self-medication for headache, reinforced substantially by social media rather than professional advice, is the dominant self-medication pattern in this community pharmacy population. Targeted pharmacist counselling on safe analgesic use, strengthened point-of-sale limits on over-the-counter analgesic quantities, and public health messaging that engages social media as an information channel are warranted.