Immigrant Mothers’ Knowledge of Medication Safety and Administration for Young Children

Abstract

The goals of this paper are to compare immigrant (Southeast Asian and Chinese) and non-immigrant (Taiwanese) mothers' knowledge of medication safety and administration for children, and to reveal how the accessibility of medical resources could affect immigrant mothers' medication administration. The medication knowledge and communication ability of immigrants are suggested to be insufficient, which could be the main reason for medication errors. When medical resources can be accessed easily, immigrant mothers' medication errors may be reduced. A survey with stratified sampling was used. Data were gathered from 643 participants with young children in Taiwan. A researcher-designed questionnaire was used to solicit participants' responses concerning medication preservation and medication administration. Southeast Asian mothers need the help of doctors or family members; they frequently administer suppositories to febrile children, store children's medication in the fridge, and pay less attention to the expiry date. Chinese immigrant mothers tend to let children take Chinese medicine, give previously prescribed drugs to sick children, give other children's medication to sick children, and buy medicines at a pharmacy without a doctor's prescription. When the participants spend more than 31 minutes travelling to the nearest clinic, they are more likely to misuse medication, such as giving previously prescribed drugs to a sick child, and combining medication with Chinese medicine. The findings of this study suggest that the medication knowledge and administration habits of immigrant and non-immigrant mothers differ. The parents of young children take sick children to seek proper medical treatment when they are able to easily access medical resources.

The Effects of a Smartphone-Based Education Program Designed to Help Mothers Safely Administer Medication to Their Children

“…To prevent accidents related to medication at home, it is first necessary to increase knowledge of medication among parents or caregivers. It is particularly important to ensure an adequate understanding of proper drug administration and storage methods 16 . The contents of the educational video provided in this study to the experimental group included reasons for correct drug administration to children; the process of absorption, delivery, and excretion of drugs; definition of drug misuse; examples of misuse cases; the “five rights” (right child, right medication, right dose, right time, and right route); and how to administer drugs to children considering their age—all using many images and pictures to help participants understand.…”

“…Knowledge of medication safety was measured using the questionnaire relating to knowledge of medication safety 16 consisting of 15 items that are rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (“always”) to 4 (“not at all”), with higher scores indicating higher levels of knowledge about medication safety. The reliability of the scale at the time of development was a Cronbach's α of .77, and in this study, it was .72.…”

Impact of an Educational Program for Mothers about Preventing Oral Medications Misuse for Children Under Five Years

“…Tool II: A structured interview questionnaire about mothers' knowledge regarding their practices during oral medications administration: It was adapted after a thorough review of literature from previous researches by [10,13,15,16]. It included five main categories: right medication (5 items), right dose (8 items), right time (2 items), care before and after medications (12 items), common oral drugs; antibiotics (8 items), antipyretics (2 items), cough and cold medications (3 items) and Oral Rehydration Solutions (ORS) (6 items).…”