Knowledge, Perception and Practice of Self-Medication Towards Covid-19 Prevention Among Residence of Felele Community, Ibadan, Oyo State

COVID-19 is a communicable respiratory disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus that causes illness in humans. Self-medication does not only include the use of un-prescribed drugs, one can also self-medicate with alcohol and other local herbs, which can weaken an individual’s immune system and render such individual susceptible to contracting the COVID-19 virus. The absence of a recognized treatment for the disease and its constant progression requires a re-evaluation of self-medication practices in Nigeria. This study therefore assessed the level of knowledge, perception and practice of self-medication towards COVID-19 prevention among residence of Felele community Ibadan. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was used to assess the level of knowledge, perception and practice of self-medication towards COVID-19. The study population for this research comprised of individuals residing in the Felele community in Ibadan Oyo State. Stratified random sampling method was used in selecting 262 participants for this study. The instrument for data collection was a researcher-developed semi-structured questionnaire, which was administered on the individuals. The face and content validity of the questionnaire was established by experts in the field of public health. Test re-test method was used to determine the reliability of the instrument. The reliability co-efficient value was 0.811 which was considered high enough to make the instruments reliable. The data collected was subjected to descriptive statistics. The findings of the study revealed that the level of knowledge of self-medication towards covid-19 prevention was found to be relatively high while overall perception indicated that the respondents had a high perception of self-medication towards covid-19 prevention but the level of practice of self-medication among the respondents was low. It was recommended among others that that awareness campaigns through media should be intensified to highlight the need for medical consultations for the diagnosis and management of COVID-19.

Keywords: Knowledge, Perception, Practice, Self-medication, Covid-19,