practice

Self-medication, defined as the use of medication without medical consultation, is prevalent among women of reproductive age globally and presents notable heath concerns. This study assess the knowledge, practices and influencing factors of self-medication among women aged 15-49 in Uselu Community, Benin City, Nigeria. Using a descriptive cross-sectional design, data were gathered from 323 respondents through a structured questionnaire, with findings analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results revealed that 86.69% of respondents had prior knowledge of self-medication, often acquired from internet/social media, family, and friends. Despite this awareness, 95.67% had engaged in self-medication within the past year, primarily for minor ailments such as headaches, menstrual pain, and other minor ailments. Analgesics (41.17%) and antibiotics (39.32%) were the most commonly used drugs, with many respondents self-medicating frequently. Influential factors included financial constraints, convenience, ease of access to over-the-counter medications, and long wait times at healthcare facilities. Additionally, social and cultural factors played a role, as family influence and traditional beliefs often guided self-medication practices. This study highlights significant risks associated with this practice, including adverse drug reactions, potential for antimicrobial resistance, and complications in pregnancy, thereby underscoring the need for educational interventions.Recommendations include increasing awareness of the dangers of unsupervised medication use and strengthening regulatory frameworks to limit easy access to potentially harmful drugs. This research study contributes to public health by emphasizing the need for targeted health education and accessible healthcare services to mitigate the adverse effects of selfmedication within this demographic. Keywords: Self-medication, knowledge, women of reproductive age, Nigeria, practice

This study assessed the practice of infection control measures, influencing factors, barriers, and the relationship between academic level and adherence among undergraduate nursing students in a tertiary institution in Edo State. A descriptive cross-sectional design was adopted, and data were collected from 244 students using a structured self-administered questionnaire. Analysis was done using SPSS version 27, with descriptive and inferential statistics applied. Findings revealed generally good adherence, particularly in hand hygiene (65.6%), proper disposal of sharps (70.5%), and use of personal protective equipment (60.7%). Compliance was lower for equipment disinfection (56.6%) and isolation precautions (53.3%), with a grand mean of 3.47. Factors positively influencing practice included belief in patient safety (72.1%), continuous education (64.8%), and supervision (62.3%). Major barriers reported were overcrowding (61.5%), time constraints (58.2%), workload (57.4%), inadequate PPE (53.3%), and insufficient supervision (52.5%). A Chi-square test revealed a significant association between academic level and adherence (χ² = 6.481, df = 4, p = 0.039), with 300-level students showing higher compliance (68.2%) than 400-level (59.3%) and 500-level (53.3%) students. The study concludes that while nursing students demonstrate commendable infection control practices, gaps remain, highlighting the need for stronger institutional support, continuous education, and resource provision to sustain compliance.

BACKGROUND: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are unintended, harmful responses to medications at normal therapeutic doses causing significant morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs. Effective pharmacovigilance (PV) is essential for detecting, assessing and preventing ADR. Reporting of ADRs by healthcare professionals is vital for the success of pharmacovigilance. Community Pharmacists play a key role in ADR reporting but underreporting remains a serious issue. This study focuses on assessing theknowledge, attitude and practice of ADR reporting among community pharmacists in Benin City. OBJECTIVES: This study was carried out to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practice of community pharmacists in adverse drug reactions reporting. METHODS: After obtaining ethical approval from the Faculty of Pharmacy Ethics Committee, a cross sectional study was employed. The study employed the use of a structured questionnaire as the major instrument of data collection. The questionnaire was carefully developed to address the objectives of the study and distributed to licensed community pharmacists. The data obtained was analyzed using the software, SPSS version 29. RESULTS: From the study conducted, a total of 184 community pharmacists participated, of which 65.4% were males while 34.6% were females. The result showed an encouraging awareness levels ofcommunity pharmacists to pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reporting practices. Almost all respondents (98.9%) acknowledged that ADRs should be reported by community pharmacists and recognized the importance of such reporting for patient safety. Poor knowledge about drug-induced diseases was evident in only 11% of participants while 52% demonstrated good knowledge. Attitudes were primarily positive (78%) and practices vi were categorized as good for 7%, fair for 27% and poor for 66% of pharmacists. The top five reported barriers to ADR reporting were unavailability of ADR forms (27%), uncertainty about causality (13.7%), lack of time/workload (12.3%), no rewards for reporting (9.7%), and complexity of the reporting form (8.7%). CONCLUSION: The findings of this study revealed that community pharmacists in Benin City had an encouraging awareness level to pharmacovigilance and ADR reporting practices, a good knowledge of drug-induced diseases, and demonstrated a positive attitude towards ADR reporting but consistent ADR reporting was still below expectations. Thus, there is poor reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) by community pharmacists in Benin City