African Journal of Demography and Population Studies

Full Length Research Paper

Pattern of antibiotic usage by adult populations in the city of Benin, Nigeria

Yah S. Clarence¹*_, Yusuf O. Edrin² and Eghafona N. Odeh³

¹Department of Microbiology, College of Science and Technology, Covenant University, Km 10 Idiroko Road, Canaan Land, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria.

²Department of Medical Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.

³Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.

Accepted 13 November, 2021

Abstract

Inappropriate use of antibiotics may play a major role in the development and spread of antibiotics resistant bacteria. Against this background, questionnaires were administered for utilization of antibiotic usage among some Nigerians in Benin. There were 3435 respondents made up of 743 (21.6%) housewives, 467 (13.6%) taxi drivers, 892 (26.0%) students, 288 (8.4%) teachers, 85 (2.5%) lawyers, 741 (21.5%) traders and 219 (6.4%) others. The questionnaires revealed that 43.1% and 56.9% of the populace took full and incomplete regimens, respectively. The commonly prescribed antibiotics were ampicillin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, and tetracycline. The least prescribed were cefotaxime, pefloxacin and ciprofloxacin while methicillin and vancomycin were not prescribed at all. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) between the mean prevalently used antibiotics. It was also found that lawyers, teachers, students took antibiotics without prescription even for unspecified ailments, which contradicts the WHO guidelines on the usage of antibiotics.