Self-prescription practices by Nigerian medical doctors
Background: Self-prescription by physicians is a form of self-care that has generated considerable controversy in recent years. The prevalence of self-prescription practices by physicians has been widely studied in North America, Europe and Asia. Few studies on physician self-prescribing and prescri...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
AOSIS
2014-09-01
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| Series: | South African Family Practice |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/3855 |
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| Summary: | Background: Self-prescription by physicians is a form of self-care that has generated considerable controversy in recent years. The prevalence of self-prescription practices by physicians has been widely studied in North America, Europe and Asia. Few studies on physician self-prescribing and prescribing for family members have been carried out in Nigeria. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of self-prescription by medical doctors in Nigeria.
Method: The study was carried out on medical doctors working in two public sector tertiary healthcare facilities in Nigeria; the Federal Medical Centre, Ido-Ekiti, and the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin. This was a questionnaire-based, cross-sectional survey of different categories of medical doctor working in two healthcare institutions. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect demographic data on the respondents, self-prescription practices, prescribing for family and friends, reasons for self-prescription and the type of medications usually prescribed.
Results: One hundred and thirty-two doctors were enrolled in the study, giving a response rate of 53.0%. One hundred and twenty-seven respondents (96.2%) usually prescribed medications for themselves, 87 (91.6%) prescribed for their spouses and 72 (80.0%) for their children. One hundred and seventeen (89.3%) of the medical doctors had prescribed by telephone, 92 (70.8%) had informally asked colleagues for a prescription, while 80.9% of them had refused to prescribe for family members mostly because of the need for a physical examination (68.2%). Seventy-six respondents (61.3%) were of the opinion that self-prescription and prescription for family members was unethical. Antimalaria drugs, analgesics and antibiotics were the most commonly prescribed drugs.
Conclusion: The findings from the two clinical centres in Nigeria demonstrated that self-prescription by medical doctors was highly prevalent. Appropriate strategies are necessary to curtail this potentially harmful practice. A larger study across all geopolitical regions is needed to fully assess the prevalence of this practice. |
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| ISSN: | 2078-6190 2078-6204 |