An exploration of parents knowledge, attitudes and practices towards the use of antibiotics in childhood upper respiratory tract infections in a tertiary Jordanian hospital

Joint Event on 3^rd International Conference on General Practice & Primary Care & 24^th International Conference on Dental Public Health & Dental Hygiene

August 16-17, 2018 Madrid, Spain

Khawla Abu Hammour, Mariam Abdel Jalil and Walid Abu Hammour

University of Jordan, Jordan

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Gen Pract

Abstract :

Objectives: The present study aimed to evaluate the parents' knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) towards the use of antibiotics for childhood upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs), at the Jordanian University Hospital. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. During the study period, 1301 parents of young children completed a validated â?? structured questionnaire. Results: Gaps in common knowledge related to antibiotics and their use were noted among participants. Nearly half of respondents believed that antibiotics are void from adverse effects, while 72.4% of them believed that a child should be given an antibiotic if it develops fever, even though 60% of them were aware that most URTIs were viral in nature. Parents reported that they administered antibiotics to children without medical advice most of the time for various causes, including using a previously prescribed antibiotic for a similar illness (27.1%), or based on pharmacist's recommendation (23.8%). Conclusion: The results demonstrated the need for educational interventions to increase the awareness of parents about antibiotics to reduce inappropriate use and its consequences.

Biography :

Khawla Abu-Hammour currently an assistant professor in the Department of Biopharmaceutics and Clinical Pharmacy at the School of Pharmacy, University of Jordan. She obtained her PhD degree from Queen's University Belfast (QUB)/the United Kingdom in 2012 under the supervision of professor Carmel Hughes. She finished her undergraduate degree in Pharmacy from the University of Jordan with excellent grade and master degree in clinical pharmacy from the same university. Her research interest is employing research in improving the clinical practice at the hospital settingand in the community pharmacies in Jordan and areas of drug safety such as pharmacovigilance, drug therapy problems, and medications reconciliations. Other research interests involve clinical pharmacy, pharmacy practice, adherence to medications/ compliance with guidelines, medication errors.

E-mail: k.hammour@ju.edu.jo