Abstract

Background: Upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) occur most commonly among children and considered as a major cause of mild morbidity. Aims and objectives: This study was conducted to assess parental knowledge and to identify their attitudes and practices related to antibiotic use in the treatment of childhood upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs). Study design: A cross-sectional study. Setting: The study was conducted during the period of January-March 2014 in Taif City, Saudi Arabia. Methods: Adult (> 18 year) Saudi people residing the city were included. Convenience method of sampling was adopted. Data was collected by mean of a structured questionnaire. Statistics: Data was processed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPPS). Logistic regression analysis was performed. P value< 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 400 participants was included, of them 236 (59%) were males. Overall, 124 (31.0%) of all interviewed parents had satisfactory knowledge on antibiotic use. Multivariate analysis showed that higher education was found to be the only predictor of satisfactory knowledge, [OR 2.5 CL (1.7- 4.5), (P= 0.026)]. Of all the parents 206 (51.5%) often give the child antibiotic based on a pharmacist recommendation and 193 (48.3%) of them reuse the antibiotic previously given for the same symptoms. Conclusion: Parents in the study area had poor knowledge on antibiotic use, which is significantly dependent on parents' level of education. In addition, some misconceptions on parents attitudes and practices related to the use antibiotics for the treatment of URTIs among children were identified.

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