Original Research Article
Year: 2019 | Month: May | Volume: 6 | Issue: 5 | Pages: 384-391
Perceptions and Attitudes of Mothers of Under-Five Children about Use of Antibiotics in Childhood Illnesses: A Cross-Sectional Study
Dr. Dipak Kumar Dhar1, Dr. Nilratan Majumder2, Mr. Ritik Arora3
1Tutor, Dept. of Physiology, Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences, Swami Rama Himalayan University, Jolly Grant, Dehradun, Uttarakhand- 248106
2Associate Professor, Dept. of Paediatrics, Agartala Government Medical College and GB Pant Hospital, Agartala, Tripura (west)-799001
3MBBS Student, Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences, Swami Rama Himalayan University, Jolly Grant, Dehradun, Uttarakhand- 248106
Corresponding Author: Dr. Nilratan Majumder
ABSTRACT
Antibiotics are one of the most widely used medicines. They are drugs which kill and arrest the growth of bacteria and are used to treat infections. However, rampant use over the decades has gradually led to the emergence of resistant organisms, threatening to render these drugs ineffective. Children have one of the highest rates of antibiotic use as they tend to suffer from more infections in the formative years of life. The awareness, perceptions and attitudes of mothers about various aspects of antibiotic use like utility, side-effects, consequences of skipping doses, importance of completing the full course of therapy, etc are critical determinants not only of the child’s health but also of the cost of healthcare and emergence of resistant pathogens in the long-run. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in the Paediatric OPD of a tertiary care hospital where 700 mothers of under-five children were interviewed. Descriptive statistics and suitable tests like Chi-square test were used to analyse the data. A P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The results revealed that about two-thirds of the participants have some basic knowledge that antibiotics are used in treatment of infections. However, many of them also believed that antibiotics are needed in all episodes of childhood illnesses like diarrhoea, including viral infections. The knowledge about antibiotic resistance was poor. Majority of the participants would use antibiotics without a doctor’s prescription and most of them wouldn’t complete the full course of therapy once the symptoms subsided. The study highlights the scope of scaling up efforts at educating the parents about consequences of these improper practices and the impending menace of antibiotic resistance.
Key words: Mothers, antibiotic use, antibiotic resistance, perceptions, attitudes
[PDF Full Text]