Effect of Educational Intervention on the Knowledge and Attitude Towards Self Medication Amongst Patients on Hemodialysis at the Buea Regional Hospital

  ABSTRACT: Self-medication is the use of medications without prior medical consultation on indication, dosage, or duration of treatment. Even though self-medication is a useful tool to treat minor ailments, improper self-medication practice may lead to adverse drug reactions and inappropriate selection of medications. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of an educational intervention on the knowledge and attitude of selfmedication among patients on dialysis at the BRH. The study was a hospital based interventional study conducted at the BRH hemodialysis unit with a sample size of 80 participants that were purposively selected. An adapted questionnaire was used to collect data and later the intervention was implemented in 2 different sessions lasting for 15 minutes each session. At the end of the intervention, the same questionnaire was administered to participants to evaluate if there was any change in knowledge and attitude. Data analyzed in SPSS v. 26. The finding of this study revealed that the prevalence of self-medication was low (20%). However, it was prevalent in all the participants who reported to have been sick. For factors associated with self-medication, the results findings show that saving money had a significant p value of 0.002. The participants had a mean score of 0.299 for knowledge before and 4.254 after intervention which gave a highly significant p value of <0.001 and mean score of 3.492 for attitude before intervention and 5.462 after intervention also yielding a highly significant p value of <0.001. The prevalence of self-medication among patients on hemodialysis was low with a rate of 20% with the most common associated factor being to save money. However, this research proves that education has an effect on the knowledge and attitude of patients on hemodialysis with a highly significant p value of <0.001.

Keywords: Self-medication, Educational intervention, Hemodialysis, Knowledge, Attitude.