Antenatal Drug Consumption: a Meta-Analysis Of The Burden Of Self- Medication In African Coutries

Self-medication can be defined as "the act of the subject, to consume on his own initiative a drug without consulting a doctor, and that the drug is already in his possession or that he obtains it in a pharmacy or from another person". The objective of our study was to evaluate the practic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Drug safety 2023-11, Vol.46 (11), p.1226-1226
Main Authors: Bouqoufi, A, Lahlou, L, Hadj, F A E, Khabbal, Y
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bias
Confidence intervals
Drugs
Heterogeneity
Medical personnel
Meta-analysis
Pregnancy
Search engines
Self-medication
Software
Statistical analysis
Statistical significance
Statistical tests
Statistics
Subgroups
Womens health
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Summary:Self-medication can be defined as "the act of the subject, to consume on his own initiative a drug without consulting a doctor, and that the drug is already in his possession or that he obtains it in a pharmacy or from another person". The objective of our study was to evaluate the practice of pregnant women towards self-medication during pregnancy in Africa through a systematic review and meta- analysis. We conducted a comprehensive literature search of Pubmed, Science direct, Google Scholar, and Web of Science databases to identify relevant studies available from January 2011 to December 2021. We used Covidence software to select all relevant studies. The pooled prevalence was calculated by a random- effects model. Study heterogeneity was assessed by Cochrane Q test and 12 index. A subgroup analysis was performed. R software was used for statistical analysis and publication bias analysis was performed by begg egger test. A total of 26 studies were eligible. The total sample size analysed was 11783 pregnant women. The pooled prevalence of self-medication in Africa was 43.34% with a confidence interval of (34.19; 52.97), the 12 test revealed a high statistically significant heterogeneity of 99%. The results of the subgroup analysis are based on income level, quality of the publication study and sample size. Heterogeneity, as assessed by the 12 statistical test, was high, statistically significant for all subgroup analyses and ranged from 96% to 99%. The funnel plot showed that there was a possibility of publication bias with a highly significant P- value. We recommend that health professionals consider implementing programs on the risks of self- medication, and strengthening the control and monitoring of over-the-counter sales of drugs.
ISSN:0114-5916
1179-1942