Prevalence and Predictors of Self-Medication Practices in India: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis

Background Self-Medication (SM) is a practice of using medications to treat self-diagnosed symptoms without a legitimate prescription by a health care professional. Alongside posing a burden on a patient, SM practices are associated with certain unfavourable health conditions such as drug-resistance, adverse effects, drug-interactions, including death. Objective To systematically review and quantify the prevalence of SM practices and its associated factors in India. Methods A comprehensive systematic search was performed using scientific databases such as PubMed and Cochrane library for the peer-reviewed research articles that were conducted in India without any language and date restrictions. Studies which were cross-sectional by design and assessing the prevalence and predictors of SM practices in India were considered for the review, and all the relevant articles were screened for their eligibility. Results Of 248 articles, a total of 17 articles comprising of 10,248 participants were included in the meta-analysis. Overall, the mean prevalence of SM practices in India was observed to be 53.57%. Familiarity with the medication appears to be a major reason to practice SM (PR: 30.45; 95% 
Confidence Interval [CI]: 17.08-43.82; 6 studies), and the practice was noticed more among 
individuals from a middle-lower class family with a prevalence rate of 26.31 (95%CI: 2.02-50.60; P<0.0001). Minor ailments were the primary reason for practicing SM (PR: 42.46; 95%CI: 21.87-63.06), among which headache was the most commonly reported (PR: 41.53; 95%CI: 18.05-65.02). Conclusion Self-medication practices are quite frequent in India. While NSAIDs and anti-allergens are the most frequently utilized self-medicated drugs used for headache and cold and cough.