Mother’s Misusing of Antibiotics for their Preschool Children

Background: Misusing of antibiotics is a vital societal health problem. The preschool
children are the possibility of receiving unnecessary antibiotics for any infections, parent's
misconceptions about antibiotic usage and resistance persist, considered the crucial
community issues that threaten the preschool children. Aims: the aim of this study was to
assess mother’s misusing of antibiotics for their preschool children. Design: descriptive
design was used to this study. Setting: the study was conducted at Pediatric outpatient clinic
affiliated to medical health Center at Qalyub Station. Sample: a purposive sample of 100
mothers attending at pediatric clinics with their preschool children free from chronic
diseases. Tools: two tools were used for data collection, first tool structured interviewing
questionnaire divided into three parts, socio-demographic data of mothers and children,
knowledge regarding antibiotic misusing and reported mother’s practices related to misuses
of antibiotics to their children , second tool to assess mother’s attitude related to misuses of
antibiotics. Results: the mean age of the studied mother’s was 27.3 ± 5.28 years, More than
half of the studied mothers had unsatisfactory level of knowledge regarding using/misuse of
antibiotics, More than half of the studied mothers had good practice score and More than half
of the studied mothers had positive attitude towards misuse of antibiotics. Conclusion:
statistically significant relation between mother’s socio demographic characteristics and their
knowledge about misusing of antibiotics, no relation between knowledge levels and practice
levels among mothers ,no relation between practice levels and attitude levels among mothers.
Recommendations: health education program should be developed for increasing awareness
of mothers about improve their knowledge and practice towards the safe use of antibiotics.