Self-prescription practices by Nigerian medical doctors

Abstract

Background: Self-prescription by physicians is a form of self-care that has generated considerable controversy in recent years. The prevalence of self-prescription practices by physicians has been widely studied in North America, Europe and Asia. Few studies on physician self-prescribing and prescribing for family members have been carried out in Nigeria. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of self-prescription by medical doctors in Nigeria.

Method: The study was carried out on medical doctors working in two public sector tertiary healthcare facilities in Nigeria; the Federal Medical Centre, Ido-Ekiti, and the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin. This was a questionnaire-based, cross-sectional survey of different categories of medical doctor working in two healthcare institutions. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect demographic data on the respondents, self-prescription practices, prescribing for family and friends, reasons for self-prescription and the type of medications usually prescribed.

Results: One hundred and thirty-two doctors were enrolled in the study, giving a response rate of 53.0%. One hundred and twenty-seven respondents (96.2%) usually prescribed medications for themselves, 87 (91.6%) prescribed for their spouses and 72 (80.0%) for their children. One hundred and seventeen (89.3%) of the medical doctors had prescribed by telephone, 92 (70.8%) had informally asked colleagues for a prescription, while 80.9% of them had refused to prescribe for family members mostly because of the need for a physical examination (68.2%). Seventy-six respondents (61.3%) were of the opinion that self-prescription and prescription for family members was unethical. Antimalaria drugs, analgesics and antibiotics were the most commonly prescribed drugs.

Conclusion: The findings from the two clinical centres in Nigeria demonstrated that self-prescription by medical doctors was highly prevalent. Appropriate strategies are necessary to curtail this potentially harmful practice. A larger study across all geopolitical regions is needed to fully assess the prevalence of this practice.