Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviors of Families About Fever in Their Children

Abstract

Objective To investigation of how families feel when their child has a fever, the level of knowledge of families about fever, and the methods they follow to reduce fever. Material and Methods A questionnaire consisting of 27 questions was applied to the parents who brought their children to the emergency department of our hospital with any complaint between March and April 2022, using the face-to-face interview method. Results A total of 221 parents were interviewed. Most of the families (34.8%) accepted 38 0C and above as fever. 207 (93.7%) of the parents thought that the degree of fever was related to the severity of the disease. Of the families, 196 (88.7%) have fear when their child have a fever, 199 (90%) believe that the fever is harmful for their child, and 164 (74.2%) had a belief that they would have a fever induced seizure. When their children had a fever, 173 (78.3%) stated that they took their temperature again in shorter an hour. Of the families, 108 (48.9%) stated that they gave antipyretic drugs every 4 hours, and 109 (49.3%) alternately gave antipyretic drugs. 172 (77.8%) of the parents stated that they woke their child up at night to give antipyretic medication, and 157 (71%) of them stayed in the same room with their child at night to followed up frequently. Twenty-seven (12.2%) of the families said that they use antibiotics every time their child has a fever, and 13 (5.9%) of them have unopened antibiotics at home. 187 (84.6%) of the families stated that they learned antipyretic practices from doctors. The rate of thinking that fever is due to infection and the rate of learning antipyretic information from books and academic publications were statistically higher in the families of undergraduate education group than in the families of basic education group (p:0.019, p:0.010, p:0.005, respectively). Conclusion Although parents' knowledge levels and right thoughts about fever have improved over time, we still think that the knowledge level of the society should be increased from the right sources on this subject.