Parental self-medication with antibiotics in a Tunisian pediatric center

Self-medication of antibiotics among children is a very common problem in Tunisia. Its prevalence isn't well established. The aims of this study are to evaluate parents' knowledge concerning antibiotic use, and identify the factors associated with this problem.

We conducted a cross-sectional study over a one year period (between August 2019 and July 2020). Data collection was performed using a questionnaire guided interview. We included parents of children consulting or hospitalized in the pediatric department of the university hospital Taher Sfar in Mahdia.

A total of 354 parents were included with an average age of 36.4±9.2 years. The average knowledge score was 2±1.3 points. In fact, 61.6% of the parents had poor knowledge about antibiotics. The frequency of non-prescription antibiotics use among children was 20.6%. Amoxicillin was the most used antibiotic (72.6%). Sore throat, important fever and flu-like symptoms were the main symptoms justifying non-prescription antibiotic use among our pediatric population in 60.3%, 34.2% and 23.3% of cases respectively. The main reason of self-medication was the fact that the same antibiotic was once prescribed to treat the same symptoms (58.9%). The used antibiotic came from an old prescription for the same child in 57.5% of the cases and was recommended by the pharmacist in 39.7% of the cases. After multivariate analysis, the factors associated with parental self-medication with antibiotics were: the advanced parent's age, the ability to name an antibiotic and knowledge's score>2.

Our study confirmed that parental knowledge about antibiotic use is low. In fact, the government should from one hand, organize antibiotic delivery and prohibit off the counter sells and in the other hand promote the education of the public through different procedures to stop this major health problem.