Background: Self-Medication (SM) is a practice of using medications to treat selfdiagnosed symptoms without a legitimate prescription by a health care professional. Alongside posing a burden on a patient, SM practices are associated with certain unfavourable health conditions such as drug-resistance, adverse effects, drug-interactions, including death. Objective: To systematically review and quantify the prevalence of SM practices and its associated factors in India. Methodology: A comprehensive systematic search was performed using scientific databases such as PubMed and Cochrane library for the peer-reviewed research articles that were conducted in India without any language and date restrictions. Studies which were cross-sectional by design and assessing the prevalence and predictors of SM practices in India were considered for the review, and all the relevant articles were screened for their eligibility. Results: Of 248 articles, a total of 17 articles comprising of 10,248 participants were included in the meta-analysis. Overall, the mean prevalence of SM practices in India was observed to be 53.57%. Familiarity with the medication appears to be a major reason to practice SM (PR: 30.45; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 17.08-43.82; 6 studies), and the practice was noticed more among individuals from a middle-lower class family with a prevalence rate of 26.31 (95%CI: 2.02-50.60; P<0.0001). Minor ailments were the primary reason for practicing SM (PR: 42.46; 95%CI: 21.87- 63.06), among which headache was the most commonly reported (PR: 41.53; 95%CI: 18.05-65.02). Conclusion: Self-medication practices are quite frequent in India. While NSAIDs and anti-allergens are the most frequently utilized self-medicated drugs used for headache and cold and cough.

Background: Globally, among all the vector-borne diseases, mosquito-borne diseases are responsible for a substantial number of cases and deaths and amount to an economic cost of US $12 billion per year. However, there is a dearth of systematic research conducted on the economic burden of mosquito-borne diseases. To address the lack of comprehensive information on this topic, a systematic review will be conducted to synthesize evidence for informing targeted policies and strategies addressing this growing burden and for better financial protection of households. Objective: The systematic review aims to review the economic burden of mosquito-borne diseases in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The review estimates the total cost, which is the compilation of both the direct costs and indirect costs. Additionally, it reports cost estimates per disease, country, and patient. The review outcome will also discuss the impact of the economic burden in terms of out-of-pocket expenditure, catastrophic health expenditure, impoverishment, and gross domestic product impact due to mosquito-borne diseases in LMICs. Methods: Systematic searches will be conducted in PubMed (MEDLINE), Ovid Embase, Scopus, the cumulative index of nursing and allied health literacy, and Cochrane CENTRAL. Additionally, websites of the World Bank, World Health Organization, and Asian Development Bank as well as grey literature (eg, Malaria No More and the Ministry of Health websites) will be searched to gather comprehensive information on the topic and identify studies published in the English language. The titles and abstracts will be independently screened by 2 reviewers, followed by a full-text review against the inclusion criteria. Disagreements will be resolved through discussion with a third author. The methodological reporting quality of the studies will be evaluated using the Larg and Moss checklist, Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials, and the Consensus on Health Economic Criteria. Data will be extracted using a standardized data extraction form. Results: The protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42023427111) prior to the initiation of the search strategy. The review is currently ongoing and will synthesize information from the identified studies through a process involving structured screening, data extraction, and critical appraisal in the form of tables and a narrative summary of studies reporting the economic burden incurred due to mosquito-borne diseases in LMICs. Conclusions: This review seeks to report the economic burden of mosquito-borne diseases. It will act as evidence for policymakers to prioritize their decisions regarding containing the prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases and the means to lowering the incidence of diseases spread by mosquitoes. Trial Registration: PROSPERO CRD42023427111; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=427111 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/50985

OBJECTIVES: To address and elucidate the impact of pharmacist-led home medicines review (HMR) services on identifying drug-related problems (DRPs) among the elderly population in home care settings.METHODS: A comprehensive systematic search was performed using electronic scientific databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science for studies published between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2018, pertaining to HMR services by pharmacists for identifying DRPs.RESULTS: In total, 4,292 studies were retrieved from the searches, of which 24 were excluded as duplicates. Titles and abstracts were screened for the remaining 4,268 studies, of which 4,239 were excluded due to the extraneous nature of the titles and/or abstracts. Subsequently, 29 full-text articles were assessed, and 19 were removed for lacking the outcome of interest and/or not satisfying the study’s inclusion criteria. Finally, 10 studies were included in the review; however, publication bias was not assessed, which is a limitation of this study. In all studies, pharmacists identified a highly significant amount of DRPs through HMR services. The most common types of DRPs were potential drug-drug interactions, serious adverse drug reactions, need for an additional drug, inappropriate medication use, non-adherence, untreated indications, excessive doses, and usage of expired medications.CONCLUSIONS: HMR is a novel extended role played by pharmacists. The efficiency of such programs in identifying and resolving DRPs could minimize patients’ health-related costs and burden, thereby enhancing the quality of life and well-being among the elderly.

Background: Childhood malnutrition remains a significant global public health concern. The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program provides specific data on child health across numerous countries. This meta-analysis aims to comprehensively assess machine learning (ML) applications in DHS data to predict malnutrition in children. Methods: A comprehensive search of the peer-reviewed literature in PubMed, Embase, and Scopus databases was conducted in January 2024. Studies employing ML algorithms on DHS data to predict malnutrition in children under 5 years were included. Using PROBAST (Prediction model Risk Of Bias Assessment Tool), the quality of the listed studies was evaluated. To conduct meta-analyses, Review Manager 5.4 was used. Results: A total of 11 out of 789 studies were included in this review. The studies were published between 2019 and 2023, with the major contribution from Bangladesh (n = 6, 55%). Of these, ten studies reported stunting, three reported wasting, and four reported underweight. A meta-analysis of ten studies reported a pooled accuracy of 68.92% (95% CI: 66.04, 71.80; I² = 100%) among ML models for predicting stunting in children. Three studies indicated a pooled accuracy of 84.39% (95% CI: 80.90, 87.87; I² = 100%) in predicting wasting. A meta-analysis of four studies indicated a pooled accuracy of 73.60% (95% CI: 70.01, 77.20; I² = 100%) for ML models predicting underweight status in children. Conclusions: This meta-analysis indicated that ML models were observed to have moderate to good performance metrics in predicting malnutrition using DHS data among children under five years.