WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

*Ehab Abdul Amir Al-Khafaji, Mohanad Fadhil Alkhafaji and Zainab Raad Naji Al-Baghdadi

ABSTRACT

Background: Illogical use of antibiotics has become a common phenomenon in developing countries. Objectives: to determine the proportion of antibiotics misuse as well as the association of antibiotic misuse with respondent's socio-demographic characteristics and factors of antibiotics use history. Methods: A cross- sectional study (including 324 respondents) was done from some of the primary health care centers at AL-Hilla city from September 2013 to March 2014 who were selected randomly and subjected to structured questionnaire covering socio-demographic characteristics and factors related to history of antibiotics use and then the responses were analyzed statistically. Results: The data indicated that 141 (43.5%) respondents utilised antibiotics without physician prescription. A mere 35.8% of respondents were 25-34. Overall, 56.8% of responders were women. Marriage was 76% and 5/10ths. Most responders (72.5%) were unemployed. This survey found 39.5% of respondents were primary schoolers. Most (52.2%) respondents reported modest monthly income. Urban respondents comprised 75.3%. The antibiotics they took previous year were unknown to 62% and 3/10 of respondents. Only 44.3% of antibiotics were penicillin. Antibiotic sources were significantly associated with sex, employment, education, family income, and residence. There were significant connections between antibiotic sources and certain factors: kind of antibiotics taken last year, reason for using antibiotics without prescription, and antibiotic information source. Conclusion: Large percentage of responders abuse antibiotics. This study also found significant connections between antibiotic overuse and gender, employment, education, family income, and location. Antibiotics used in the last year were unknown to over half of respondents. Most antibiotics used without a prescription waste time.