Parents Awareness about the Use of Self-Medication in Children, Saudi Arabia, 2023

Abstract

Abstract Aim: To assess the knowledge and practice of parents about the use of self-medication in their children and to determine the reasons that lead to this situation. In addition to determining the relationship between self-medication practice and socio-demographic characteristics. An observational cross-sectional intuitional-based study including 427 parents regarding children's self-medication was conducted in King Saud Hospital in Qassim region of Saudi Arabia. Result: A total of 427 participants were included in this study; (62.1%) of them were females, and (37.9%) were males. The commonest age group was found to be 31–35 years old (25.1%). Most of the participants (72.8%) were graduates, while (7.5%) were postgraduates. Most of the participants (78.7%) predominantly used synthetic medicines, while (21.3%) used herbal medication. The majority of the parents (69.8%) were aware of the side effects and complications of the medications. The most frequent self-medications used by the parents were antipyretics (81.5%), cough syrups (41.9%), and anti-allergy medication (23%). Moreover, reasons for parental self-medication of their children were awareness about their children’s disease from the symptoms (72.6%), waiting time at the clinic for too long (61.8%), and consultation fees being too expensive (52%). Among the socio-demographic characteristics that we included in the table, only occupation and the number of children were found to be statistically significant (p≤0.05). Conclusion: Overall, this study can conclude that there is a huge use of self-medication for children by parents attending King Saud Hospital, Qassim region, Saudi Arabia. The knowledge and practice of the majority of parents regarding self-medication in their children were found to be acceptable. However, despite that, many of the parents were educated, but their knowledge of many of them about self-medication was insufficient. Significant associations were found between the use of self-medication and both occupation and the number of children.