Drug use and Purchasing Determinants in an Addis Ababa District
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Date
1993-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study assesses the overall drug use pattern
(with and without prescription) in an Addis Ababa
community, potential drug sources, factors associated
with increased drug consumption and purchasing following
an illness episode. It employed a cross-sectional
community-based survey of a sample of 1185 households,
selected randomly from the source population of all 23
kebeles of the previous Yeka District of Addis Ababa. A
structured questionnaire was developed, pretested and
implemented for the purpose of the survey.
The study showed that 85.2% of the studied sample
population took somekind of drug (prescribed or nonprescribed)
and 14.8% did nothing following an illness
during the four week study period .
Drug users and nonusers were compared with respect
to demographic and socio-economic variables. The use
was higher among children less than 5 years of age, in
high income groups, and among those with higher average
haelth care expenditure per episode. There was no sex
difference observed in relation to drug taking with or
without prescription . 86.9% and 84.1% of males and
females, respectively, took drugs. Of these drug users,
95.5% took them with prescription and 4.5% without.It is
believed that the high use rate of drug taking andspesifically drugs with prescription following an illness
in the district might be explaind with the burden o f
mo rbidity in the distr ict.been carried out on prescription and non prescription
drug use, but the situation in developing countries is
different, and in Ethiopia only a few research works have
been conducted in this area.
From a number of studies conducted in various
developed countries the major factors that are associated
with increased drug use were documented. In Etiopia ,
inspite of high use rate lack of information on users
characteristics is unfortunate Due to the lack of
available information on drug use patterns in general and
on prescribed and nonprescribed drugs, in particular, it
is difficult to predict pattern of drug consumption in
our community.
The objective of this study was to assess the
overall drug usage pattern in the community, sources of
the drugs and determinants /factors that influence drug
purchasing and usage (e. g. age, income, sex, educational
level and average monthly health care expenditure) . It
was carried out in Yeka District of Addis Ababa
administrative region, which was selected for the study
because it was the residency assignment area of t he
principa l investigator.
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Keywords
Drug Use, Purchasing Determinants