Publications

According to World Health Organization estimates, more than half of all medicines areprescribed, dispensed or sold inappropriately, and half of all patients fail to take medicinesprescribed to them correctly. In relation to this, of the world's seven billion people, 75% ofwhom live in developing countries, 25–50% have little or no access to basic pharmaceuticaldrug availability, (WHO, 2015) This study determined factors contributing to irrational druguse among patients attending Hoima Regional Referral Hospital. This was a descriptive crosssectionalstudy. Questionnaires were marked with codes to help not to repeat the samequestioners when doing data analysis. It was then analyzed using Statistical Package forSocial Sciences (SPSS) program. Frequency tables were used to present the findings. Theprevalence of irrational drug use among the 113 study participants was 64.6 % (73). Thepresent study found that the prevalence of irrational drug use was highest among those whoattained post-primary education (76.12%), not married (80.00%), peasants (84.31%) and males(75.00%) The prevalence of irrational drug use is high. It is more prevalent among those whoattained post-primary education, unmarried, peasants and males.