Out-of-Hospital Administration of Medication without Prescription and Associated Factors among Preschool Children

Abstract

The increasing trend of administering nonprescribed medicines in children is a significant public health issue. The aim of the present study was to assess the use of medication without a prescription (MWP), including both nonprescribed medication (NPM) and prescription-only medication (POM), and identify associated factors, among preschoolers in Athens, Greece. A predesigned questionnaire was distributed to parents from May through June 2011. Multivariable binary logistic regression analysis models were used to assess associations of interest. Results showed that 95.1% of parents reported administering at least one MWP, during the previous 12 months. Antipyretics (91%) were the most commonly NPM and bronchodilators (24.8%) and antibiotics (16.4%) the most common POM dispensed. Child's increased age group, lack of parental information, higher paternal education, and mother's foreign nationality were associated with increased antipyretic use (p < 0.05), while father's foreign nationality and parental age were positive predictors of antibiotic administration (p < 0.05). The likelihood of consuming antipyretics and antibiotics significantly increased when information was provided by a pharmacist (p = 0.017 and p = 0.054, resp.). Conclusively, most parents have administered at least one MWP, including antibiotics, to address symptoms of common childhood diseases, highlighting the need of information campaigns concerning the consequences of their improper use.

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

“…The results of the current study indicated that there were statistically significant differences found between socio-demographic characteristics of the studied mothers' and their total score of knowledge about practice in pre and posttest for all item as shown in Table 8. These findings were similar to a study carried out by [21], [38], [39] and [12].…”

“…Moreover, most of them gave previously prescribed antibiotics, antipyretics, cough and cold medications to their children without prescription as illustrated in Table 5, Table 6. The results were in the same line with [16,20,21,22,23,24] they indicated that there was a high prevalence of non-prescribed medications among children.…”

Prevalence of Hypersensitivity Reactions in Children Associated with Acetaminophen: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Acetaminophen is the most commonly used antipyretic medication in children and is also often used to treat pain [1]. Although hepatotoxicity related to acetaminophen overdosing has been well documented [2], acetaminophen hypersensitivity is a rare event [3], and very little is known about the hypersensitivity reactions related to appropriate dosing.…”

Pediatric self-medication use in Rwanda – a cross sectional study

“…This is similar to 77% reported in Pakistan 7 and higher than the prevalence of 32% and 58.82% reported in Madagascar and India 8,11,16 . However, higher prevalence of 95.1% and 98.1% were reported in Greece and Australia 17,18 . This shows that self-medication in children is a universal practice with some differences between countries.…”

“…Factors associated with the parental choice to self-medicate their children vary, but include: parents/caregivers perceiving their child's illness as being mild and not requiring health professional consultation, lack of time to attend consultations, high consultation fees, clinic waiting time, emergency treatment, use of old prescriptions available in the home, parent comfort in recognizing their children's disease based on the symptoms and having experience with the medication 14,15 . Pediatric self-medication is a worldwide practice with a reported prevalence between 32-98% in Madagascar, India, Greece, and Australia 8,[16][17][18] . Tanzania, a fellow nation of the East African community has reported pediatric self-medication rates of 69% 19 .…”