“EVALUATION OF PARENTAL PERCEPTION ABOUT SELF-MEDICATION AND OTHER MEDICINE USE PRACTICES IN CHILDREN”

*Dr. Smita Sontakke, Dr. Ayudha Magdum, Dr. Kavita Jaiswal, Dr. Chaitali Bajait, Dr. Sonali Pimpalkhute, Dr. Ganesh Dakhale

ABSTRACT

Background: Practice of parental self-medication in children needs to be evaluated as children are more vulnerable to adverse consequences of drugs. Objectives: To evaluate pattern of parental self-medication in children, assess parental knowledge and attitude about common medicine use practices in children and find factors influencing self-medication. Methods: This was a prospective, cross-sectional questionnaire based study carried out in 170 parents attending Pediatric OPD of a tertiary care teaching hospital with their child. Parents were interviewed using a self-designed, semi-structured questionnaire to get information about various aspects of parental self-medication in children. Results: Out of the total respondents 58.82% admitted to using medicines without consulting a doctor, in their children. Self-medication was found to be significantly more in children above five years (p<0.0001) and in families having annual income less than INR 30000 (p=0.0188). Awareness about dose/duration, precautions/contraindications about medicines used by self-medication was inadequate. Knowledge about common medicine use practices in children such as quantity in one teaspoonful, breaking a tablet into two, mixing medicines with food was poor. Fever (55), cough/cold (45) and loose motions (37) were commonly associated with parental self-medication in children while medicines commonly used by self-medication were analgesics/antipyretics (58) and medicines for respiratory symptoms (42). Conclusion: Lack of essential knowledge about medicines used by self-medication and incorrect knowledge about various common medicine use practices among parents is a serious matter when medicine use in children is concerned. Interventions targeted at improving awareness about these issues amongst parents involved in self-medicating their children need to be undertaken on large scale.

Keywords: Self-medication in children, parental knowledge of medicines, pediatric self-medication, medicine use in children.