A Cross Sectional Survey of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Antibiotic Use for Children in Chennai among Mothers

Abstract

Background and Aim: Mothers play a vital role in providing antibiotics to their children since they are too often affected with infections. Hence, the purpose of this study to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice towards antibiotic use of children in Chennai among mothers. 
 Materials and Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted among mothers of 250 participants. A questionnaire based online survey was conducted and distributed through the survey planet. The data were collected and tabulated in Microsoft Excel sheets which were transferred to SPSS Version 20 for statistical analysis. Chi square test was performed to check for association between variables. 
 Results: About 71.3% of the mothers are not aware that antibiotic resistance is a worldwide problem and 53.3% are paying attention to the expiry date of antibiotics and also 59.3% of the respondents give higher doses of antibiotics to their child than what doctor’s prescribed. 44% of them are providing antibiotics prescribed by local pharmacists without any doctor's prescription. A highly significant association was seen in mothers with monthly income of <30000 rupees do not prefer expensive antibiotics compared to monthly income of >30000 rupees (Chi square test; p<0.001, statistically significant). 
 Conclusion: The study concluded that the mother’s limited knowledge about antibiotics. Hence it is important to facilitate multilevel parent’s education programs regarding antibiotic usage and create awareness about the complications of misconceptions of antibiotics.

Antibiotics Self Medication among Children: A Systematic Review

“…A box plot was created to analyze the distribution of ASM in the world region from which the studies were conducted ( Figure 2 ). A higher prevalence was found in Middle East (34%), Africa (22%), Asia (20%), and South America (17%), while the lowest prevalence was found in Europe (8%) [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 ,…”

“…On average, 53% of parents, ranging from 11.3% [ 33 ] to 90% [ 71 ], knew the problem of antimicrobial resistance [ 20 , 25 , 36 , 37 , 39 , 42 , 45 , 48 , 51 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 58 , 59 , 62 , 67 , 70 , 72 ].…”

“…From 6.4% [ 35 ] to 85% [ 39 ] of parents thought that antibiotics were indicated to relief symptoms such as fever, cough, runny nose, abdominal pain, or common cold [ 20 , 25 , 32 , 33 , 35 , 37 , 39 , 42 , 48 , 53 , 59 , 62 , 66 , 67 , 70 , 71 , 72 ] and this was associated with antibiotic self-medication in a Saudi study with an odds ratio of 2.17 (C.I. 1.19–3.96) [ 21 ].…”

“…Over 60%, ranging from 17.9% [ 35 ] to 92% [ 32 ], of parents believed that antibiotics were useful to treat disease typically provoked by viruses [ 20 , 25 , 32 , 35 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 42 , 45 , 48 , 51 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 58 , 59 , 62 , 67 , 70 , 71 , 72 ]. In a Caribbean study, it was demonstrated that parents with low knowledge about antibiotics (Caregivers’ Antibiotic Knowledge Score (AKS)<12) had an higher risk to self-medicate their children [ 51 ].…”

“…On average, about 40%, ranging from 12% [ 47 ] to 80.5% [ 65 ], of parents interviewed believed that leftover antibiotics used to treat their children or an other member of their family in the past could be used to treat their children [ 21 , 37 , 45 , 47 , 50 , 51 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 61 , 62 , 66 , 72 ]. This belief was statistically associated with higher risk of ASM with an odds ratio of 3.01 (C.I.…”