Background: Limited access to the health care facilities in hilly regions can lead to self-medication among the people. The purpose of this study is to estimate the prevalence of self-medication and its associated factors in a community of eastern Nepal. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in three purposively selected VDCs of Dhankuta district. One family member above 16 years of age, preferably head of the family from 376 households were interviewed from November 2015 to December 2015. Data were collected by face-to-face interview using questionnaires which include sociodemographic characteristics, self-medication status, source of information and type of drug self-medicated, condition in which self-medication used. Binary and multiple logistic regression were used to find the association of self-medication with related variables. Results: The mean age of the participants was 40 (SD 14.6) years. A total of 264 (70.2%) participants practiced self-medication within 12 months. Among self-medicated drugs, the most common were paracetamol (83.7%) followed by other NSAIDs (56.4%) and cough remedies (28.4%). The common causes for self-medication were cough, fever and headache. Self-medication was found to be significantly associated with female, low education level, currently not married, less frequency of visiting doctor, acceptable perception about self-medication and self-medication among the family. Conclusions: This study showed that there was a high prevalence of self-medication in Dhankuta district of Nepal. The results suggest a need to aware patients on the appropriateness of self-medication.

Background: The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Short Depression Scale (CES-D-10) is one of the most commonly used instruments to screen depression among both general and clinical populations. Therefore, we aimed to determine the psychometric properties of its Urdu Version (CESD-U) that was developed by a two-step forward and back translation. Materials and methods: A psychometric validation study was conducted among adult hemodialysis patients (N = 50) who could read/write Urdu, enrolled using convenience sampling method, at District Headquarter Hospital, Pakpattan, Pakistan. Content validity was determined by content validity index (CVI). Reliability was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and interclass correlation (ICC) coefficient whereas convergent validity was assessed by examining the correlation of CESD-U with Urdu version of Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Results: Mean Item-CVI was 0.986 (individual item-CVI range 0.857-1.000). Value of Scale-level-CVI, universal agreement calculation method (S-CVI/UA) was 0.9. Cronbach’s alpha value was found to be 0.754, showing satisfactory internal consistency. ICC of CESD-U was also satisfactory (ICC of individual items 0.740-0.947). Spearman’s correlation testing between CESD-U and PHQ-9 Urdu indicated good correlation (Spearman’s rho = 0.660; p < 0.001). Conclusion: CESD-U is a short, easy, valid and reliable instrument to screen depression among Urdu speaking populations.