Parental self-medication and associated factors in children: a cross-sectional study in Turkey

Abstract

Abstract Objective This study was conducted to evaluate the parental self-medication (SM) practices in children and associated factors in Adana, Turkey. Methods A web-based cross-sectional survey was carried out among the parents between December 2020 and April 2021. This study was conducted according to the ‘Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES)’ guidelines. A one-page survey included details about sociodemographic characteristics (gender, age, profession, education of parents and others) sources of information, questions related to parental SM practices for their children (SM practices, common illnesses, drugs used as SM practices and drug-related information) and the reasons behind SM practices were disseminated via social media networks (Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook) to eligible participants. Online sample size calculator was used, and snow-ball sampling was employed during the study. The final automatic responses from Google Forms were retrieved as ‘Excel datasheet’ and then cleaned, coded and imported into the SPSS statistical tool (v.25.0). Key findings This study included a total of 370 participants (response rate of 95.4%). Parental SM practices were revealed to be more (n = 234; 63.5%) prevalent. The most frequent problems for parents who follow SM practices were fever (39.5%; n = 146) and abdominal pain (23.8%; n = 88). The most commonly used class of drugs was antipyretics followed by analgesics and antibiotics. The main reasons for SM practices were personal experience in treating children (n = 186; 50.3%) and high consultation charges (n = 72; 19.5%). Mother working status and parental educational level were two main factors found to be statistically associated with SM practices (P < 0.05). Conclusions The prevalence of parental SM practices was high. There is an urgent need for the parental educational program, the development of national policies about rational medicine usage and durable actions to discourage SM practices.