Parents' knowledge, attitudes and practices on antibiotic use by children

Abstract

Background and Objective: Deficient knowledge on antibiotics causes misuse. This study aimed to investigate parents’ knowledge, attitudes and practices on antibiotic use by children in various cities of Saudi Arabia. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out using a previously validated questionnaire. The questionnaire was translated into Arabic and hosted on Google Forms. Parents of children aged ≤14 years, whose contact details were available with the author, were contacted and requested to participate in the study. For those who agreed to participate, the Google Forms link was shared through WhatsApp between July and August 2016. The respondents were also encouraged to share the link with contacts who had children aged ≤14 years. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were performed. Results: In total, 544 parents responded from various cities of Saudi Arabia. Of these, about 75% were males (mean age = 49.9 years) and the majority (~68%) had a university degree and above. In the 6 months preceding the study, 431 respondents had taken their children to physicians. Of these, only 7.2% reported not being prescribed any antibiotics, whereas 66.8% were prescribed an oral antibiotic one or two times and 26% were more than three times. In terms of prescription, 373 respondents (68.6%) purchased antibiotics without a prescription, whereas 171 (31.4%) purchased it only after obtaining a prescription. However, only seven (1.3%) followed instructions regarding antibiotic usage, whereas 50% did not receive any advice from their doctor regarding use. All demographic characteristics, except gender and residence, were found to have significant effect on parents’ knowledge on antibiotic use ( P < 0.05). Conclusion: This study found that in various cities of Saudi Arabia, parents’ knowledge, attitudes and practices on antibiotics for their children are poor. These findings highlight the need for parental education programs regarding antibiotic use and for implementing more stringent regulations on antibiotic prescription.

Parental Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices on Antibiotic Use for Childhood Upper Respiratory Tract Infections during COVID-19 Pandemic in Greece

“…In our study, most responders were familiar with antibiotics and able to distinguish them among other drugs similar to Palestinian parents [38]. In particular, 61% were worried about antibiotics' side effects, and the majority knew that imprudent use drives antimicrobial resistance, as previously depicted in similar studies worldwide [8,14,16,23].…”

“…This finding is lower than in other countries such as Peru (23.5%) and Lebanon (22.5%) [34][35][36][37][38]. Of note, 16.3% have sometimes used leftover antibiotics in contrast with Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Macedonia, where higher percentages were recorded, 66%, 60.8%, respectively [16,18]. Moreover, it appears that Greek parents trust their pediatricians as the vast majority would neither visit another pediatrician for a second opinion (81.3%) if their pediatrician would not prescribe antibiotics for their child's cold or flu, nor change their pediatrician in case they did not prescribe antibiotics as often as they believed that they should (86.4%).…”

“…As a result, over the past decade, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized the emergence of antibiotic resistance as one of the 10 top global public health threats facing humanity [11]. Based on numerous reports, factors leading to antimicrobial overuse in children are complex, involving easy access to antibiotics for self-medication [12], overprescribing by physicians due to diagnostic uncertainty [13], or parents' wish, which is mainly driven by lack of knowledge and misperceptions [14][15][16][17]. A recent review demonstrated that one-third of the population of low and middle-income countries have significant knowledge gaps in the field [18].…”

Impact of a Pharmacist-led Educational Intervention on knowledge of antibiotics among mothers of under-five children attending vaccination clinics in Delta State, Nigeria

“…Only 15% of medical students population and Italian parents acknowledged the need to discontinue the use of antibiotics when a patient's condition improves and 28% of a Malaysian general population` agreed that antibiotics should be discontinued when one is getting better which is somewhat consistent with our study findings where nearly three-quarters of the study population disagreed that one can stop giving antibiotics to a child if symptoms improve before completing the full course (Oh et al, 2011;Scaioli et al, 2015;Okide et al, 2017;). In contrast, up to 37% of parents believed antibiotics should be discontinued when the patient's condition improved (Al-Ayed, 2019). Participants' assertions about the lack of efficacy of antibiotics in treating fever, colds and as anti-inflammatory agents elicited similar responses in previous studies among parents.…”

Mobile Media Communications’ Influence Upon Purchase Decisions in the Case of Ent Drugs for Children and on the Choice of Doctors

“…The topic of parents' decision on drugs administrated to their children is a very delicate one, as the importance of the health condition of the child is transferred to the parents. In a research made in Saudi Arabia, the results have shown that only 1.3% of parents followed instructions regarding antibiotic usage and 50% did not receive any advice from their doctor regarding the use of antibiotics [1]. In general, parents are having a low awareness regarding the need to use antibiotics especially in developing countries, a fact related with the low medical literacy and the poor implication of authorities [2,28].…”