Evaluation of parental knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding antibiotic use in acute upper respiratory tract infections in children under 18 years of age: a cross-sectional study in Turkey

Abstract

Background Upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) are common in children. Antibiotics still continue to be prescribed although most URTIs are of viral origin. This is inappropriate use and this unnecessary administration contributes or may cause antibiotic resistance. The problem of unnecessary antibiotic use among children is a concern for antibiotic resistance in low- and middle-income developing countries. This study aims to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of parents of children with upper respiratory tract infections regarding antibiotic use and their antibiotic administration practices in a tertiary care hospital in Turkey. Methods Our study is a cross-sectional survey study. It was carried out between 14 December 2020 and 1 April 2021 for parents over 18 years of age with a child under 18 years’ old who applied to the general pediatrics outpatient clinics of Gazi University Faculty of Medicine Hospital Department of Pediatrics. Results Five hundred fifty-four parents responded to the questionnaire (93.2% rate of response). A total of 15.7% of parents stated to use antibiotics in any child with fever. 37% of parents believed that antibiotics could cure infections caused by viruses. 6.3% of parents declared that they put pressure on pediatricians to prescribe antibiotics. While 28% of the parents who thought that the use of inappropriate antibiotics would not change the effect and resistance of the treatment, 41% thought that new antibiotics could be developed continuously. 85.6% of the parents stated that they never gave their children non-prescription antibiotics when they had a high fever. 80.9% of them declared that they never used past antibiotics in the presence of a new infection. Conclusion According to the results of our study of parents’ lack of knowledge about antibiotics in Turkey, though generally it shows proper attitude and practices. It shows that some of the restrictions imposed by the National Action Plan are partially working. However, it is still necessary to continue to inform parents, pediatricians and pharmacists about the use of antibiotics, and to be more sensitive about the prescribing of antibiotics, and if necessary, sanctions should be imposed by the state in order to prevent unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions.

An Examination of Parental Knowledge and Attitudes About the Rational Use of Antibiotics

“…The literature reveals a significant correlation between parents' education and the rational use of antibiotics. It has been shown that parents with lesser education, those living in the rural areas and in less-developed countries have low knowledge and attitude scores (19)(20)(21)(22). In our study, we observed that although a large part of the parents had a high school or university education, a correlation was still found between education and the rational use of antibiotics; we saw that as education levels increased, knowledge and attitude scores regarding the rational use of antibiotics increased.…”

Parent-Reported Rate of the Use of Antibiotics in Children: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Although we did not uncover predictors of antibiotic usage in our study, presumably due to the relatively small sample size, there is much evidence in the literature reporting certain factors influencing the rate of antibiotic use. For instance, a previous study that used a relatively larger sample size (i.e., 2,157) identified poor parental knowledge of antibiotics as a predictor of antibiotic use, whereas our sample is smaller, which precludes the observance of statistically significant factors affecting antibiotic use [20]. Irrational antibiotic use may also be influenced by parents' poor socioeconomic status, low education, and certain behavioral factors, such as self-medication use practice [9,10,17,20].…”

Students’ Knowledge Regarding Antibiotic Usage for Children Upper Respiratory Tract Infections

“…There is a misunderstanding by physicians during patient consultations, without clearly referring to a viral or bacterial disease. Therefore, some tend to often give antibiotics to treat all kinds of germs infections without recognizing the underlying cause, and antibiotics have been treated as a "wonder drug" by some to treat all kinds of symptoms (Shehadeh et al, 2012;Albayrak et al, 2021;Rahman et al, 2016;Peng et al, 2018).…”