ArticlePloS one2025
Self-medication practices in Ethiopia: An umbrella review protocol.
Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
17 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSelf-medication is the practice of obtaining and using drugs without proper guidance or supervision. It can involve various behaviours that may harm individuals and society. Self-medication can cause serious health and economic problems for countries and healthcare systems. Therefore, current review aimed at examining self-medication practices in Ethiopia.
methodsThis umbrella review will consider all systematic reviews that include self-medication practices of adult age greater than 18 years in Ethiopia. Study protocols, papers other than systematic reviews, papers not reporting on self-medication practices, and papers published in languages other than English will be excluded from the review. MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews will be searched. Two reviewers will screen the titles and abstracts against the eligibility criteria. Data extraction will be performed by 2 independent reviewers on the reviews selected for inclusion. The characteristics of studies like author name, year published, databases searched, number of studies/patients included, and self-medication practices will be extracted. The quality of included studies will be reported using the JBI critical appraisal checklist for systematic reviews and research syntheses. A summary of the extracted data will be presented in tabular format and a narrative synthesis will be performed on the collected systematic reviews that meet the inclusion criteria. DISCUSSION: This protocol is expected to bring pooled evidence on self-medication practice among different population groups like pregnant mothers, adult population, students, and general population. Evidence from this review will be used to tackle current global problem related with anti-microbial resistance. Therefore, our review will call for government and non-government interventions in reducing current challenge of global issue related with anti-microbial resistance in resource limited country like Ethiopia. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION NUMBER: PROSPERO CRD42023182552.
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