Parental knowledge and practice on antibiotic use for upper respiratory tract infections in children, in Aksum town health institutions, Northern Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION: worldwide, antibiotics are the most commonly prescribed and abused drugs for upper respiratory tract infections. Acute upper respiratory infections are common in children who attend childcare and preventing transmission of disease in health setting depends on actions by parents and staff. Therefore the objective of this study is to assess the parental knowledge and practice on antibiotic use for upper respiratory tract infections in children, in Aksum town health institutions, northern Ethiopia, 2018. METHODS: a facility-based cross-sectional study design was adopted involving 384 parents of children visited governmental health facilities in Aksum town from February to March, 2018. Respondents were selected based on the proportion of nurses in the health facilities. SPSS version 22 was applied for data entry and analysis. RESULTS: the total number of questionnaires was 384 resulting in a 100% response rate. Almost half of the parents had poor knowledge of the use of antibiotics in children for URTIs 183(47.7%), followed by 156(40.6%) moderate knowledge and 45(11.7%) good knowledge. Practices regarding antibiotic use in children with URTI varied. Only 12.8% of the parents did not always follow the doctors´ advice regarding antibiotic use. In this study has reported many areas in which parental awareness on antibiotic use for acute URTI is considered inadequate, consequently inappropriate knowledge and practices. CONCLUSION: nearly half of the parents attending the physicians for their children with URTI expected to get antibiotics.