Abstract

According to World Health Organization estimates, more than half of all medicines are
prescribed, dispensed or sold inappropriately, and half of all patients fail to take medicines
prescribed to them correctly. In relation to this, of the world's seven billion people, 75% of
whom live in developing countries, 25–50% have little or no access to basic pharmaceutical
drug availability, (WHO, 2015) This study determined factors contributing to irrational drug
use among patients attending Hoima Regional Referral Hospital. This was a descriptive crosssectional
study. Questionnaires were marked with codes to help not to repeat the same
questioners when doing data analysis. It was then analyzed using Statistical Package for
Social Sciences (SPSS) program. Frequency tables were used to present the findings. The
prevalence of irrational drug use among the 113 study participants was 64.6 % (73). The
present study found that the prevalence of irrational drug use was highest among those who
attained 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 who
attained post-primary education, unmarried, peasants and males.