self-treatment during pregnancy and its related factors

introduction: increasing selftreatment is one of the most important problems in the health system most importantly during pregnancy.objective: to determine the status of selftreatment and its related factors in pregnant women in ahwaz.materials and methods: this crosssectional analytical study evaluates the status of selftreatment during pregnancy for 400 women who have gave birth in the educational hospitals in ahwaz. the sampling method was convenient and the data was collected by interviews and the completion of questionnaires. the data were analysed using descriptive statistics, chisquare, and logistic regression tests.results: in this study, 25.8% of all the studied women underwent selftreatment. the most common causes included believing in the treatment of disease with medication alone, believing in the safety of medications, and the availability of medications at home. the educational level of the pregnant women (95% ci=0.925.43, β=2.24) and their place of residence (95% ci=0.2490.866, β=0.46) were associated with the selfmedication rate.conclusion: since onefourth of the studied population underwent selfmedication and with the common causes related to the availability and the belief in safety of medications, in order to raise the awareness of pregnant women and reduce the rate of selftreatment, which may lead to neonatal abnormalities, it is essential that healthcare providers and pharmacists educate pregnant women.