Regresar

Prevalence of self-medication with antibiotics in the urban parishes of the City of Cuenca, 2016–2017

Abstract:

Background Information: antimicrobial resistance is a public health problem at a worldwide level and, this harmony between bacteria and people has been affected by the inappropriate use of these medications. Objective: prevalence of self-medication with antibiotics in adults from 18 to 64 years of age of the urban parishes in the city of Cuenca, 2016-2017 period. Methodology: transversal descriptive study. The calculation of the simple size was carried out with a population of 329,928 inhabitants (INEC 2010), for a level of confidence of 95%, with a margin of error of 5%, taking into account 10% of losses, finally the size of the sample was 419 participants. For the collection of data, a questionnaire was developed after analysis of previous studies, and the description of the variables were subjected to the validity of its content (qualitative) by the expert analysis, the data collection process was piloted to obtain the internal validity of the questionnaire that was applied to a target population of 30 users. Results: the prevalence of self-medication with antibiotics was 49.4%; and the feminine gender was more frequently 26.26%; the family group was composed of 4 to 6 people 26.97%; the 23.39% of the participants had income less than $700. Conclusions: self-medication with antibiotics in the parishes of the city of Cuenca is high and is related to research reported in developing countries.