P28 - Over The Counter (OTC) Use and Reasons Of Self-Medication Among Pregnant And Post-Partum Women In Southern Of Morocco

Self-medication among pregnant women poses a major risk to the mother and child's health. It's a global concern that requires attention from professional health care. Data on self-medication practice and predictors among pregnant and postpartum women is limited in Morocco, so the aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of self-medication and contributing factors, among pregnant and postpartum women attending the antenatal care of the regional hospital center of Sous Massa region. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 420 pregnant and postpartum women who were attending the service of gynecology and obstetrics at the regional hospital center of Sous Massa region from April 2022 to December 2022. The inclusion criteria were all voluntary and consenting pregnant or post-partum women presented themselves for prenatal consultation and women admitted for childbirth at the maternity at regional hospital center Hassan 2. The questionnaire was prepared and reviewed by a panel of specialists in the fields of clinical pharmacology and biostatistics. For content validity, a primary survey was used to conduct a pilot study. An informed consent was distributed to all participants, and those who signed the informed consent were provided with a hard copy of the questionnaires and were given time to complete them. The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee for biomedical research at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Rabat, Morocco. Before commencement, the study was approved by the biomedical research ethics committee at Mohamed V University (68-21). Descriptive statistical analyses were performed for the study participants. The logistic regression analysis was used to determine the significance of the association between the outcome and independent variables. P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant in multivariate analysis. All statistical analyses were performed using Jamovi Software. A total of 420 pregnant and postpartum women were included in the study. The mean age of the participants was 28.7 (±6.35) years. Of the total, 24.8% practiced self-medication during the current pregnancy with CI 95% (20.9%-29.1%). In this survey, 47.1% of the participants self-medicated in the first trimester, and 23.4% of the participants reported practicing selfmedication in the third trimester. 8.2% of pregnant women use selfmedication at any time in their pregnancies. The therapeutic families concerned with self-medication practice were Analgesics (41.4%), Antacids (20.3%), Antimicrosis (13.5%), and Vitamins (9%). The leading common causes/symptoms which necessitate self-medication among pregnant and postpartum women were Anemia (84.8%), epi gastralgia (16.8%), vomiting, and pyrosis (15.2%). Urinary, Vaginal infections 58 (15%). The main reasons mentioned by the participants for self-medication were the Need for fast release (51.7%), followed by previous experiences with the same drugs (31.7%), and out of 20% of the participants reported difficulties in accessing Healthcare professionals. The findings of the present study give us knowledge and the state of self-medication among pregnant and postpartum women attending the regional hospital center of Sous Massa. It is recommended that healthcare professionals increase their awareness of pregnant women and implemented suitable strategies to regulate the commercialization, delivery, and use of conventional medications without prescriptions.