Study On Knowledge And Behaviors Of Antibiotic Use For Children Among Parents In Ningbo City

ObjectiveTo investigate the knowledge and behaviors of antibiotic use for children among urban and rural parents in Ningbo City and explore their main influencing factors in order to produce evidences for interventions to promote rational antibiotic use of children.MethodsVaccination sites of urban community health service centres or rural township hospitals,kindergartens and primary schools were selected using stratified cluster random sampling method in Yingzhou and Beilun District of Ningbo City,respectively.A self-designed questionnaire on WenJuanXing platform was used to investigate parents with children aged 0 to 14 years.ResultsOf 3611 participants,2172(60.1%)parents whose antibiotic knowledge scores were between 0 to 5,1439(39.9%)were more than 5.The following socio-demographic characteristics were significantly associated with higher antibiotic use knowledge scores:mother(ORF=1.56,95%CI:1.29-1.87,P<0.001),city residence(OR=1.32,95%CI:1.11-1.55,P=0.001),higher education level(OR=2.37,95%CI:1.73-3.24,P<0.001;OR=5.57,95%CI:4.13-7.51,P<0,001),higher household income(OR=1.53,95%CI:1.22-1.91,P<0.001;OR=1.61,95%CI:1.27-2.06,P<0.001;OR=1.65,95%CI:1.23-2.21,P=0.001),medical background(OR=4.25,95%CI:3.28-5.50,P<0.001),and older children(OR=2.22,95%CI:1.77-2.77,P<0.001;OR=1.80,95%CI:1.44-2.25,P<0.001;OR=2.23,95CI:1.68-2.95,P<0.001).In the past month,138(20.9%)parents self-medicated their children with antibiotics.71(8.0%)parents asked for antibiotics when taking their children to see doctors.317(72.0%)parents stopped the antibiotic therapy as soon as their children's symptoms relieved.In the past year,1599(44.3%)parents kept antibiotics for children at home and 614(17.0%)used antibiotics prophylactically.Logistic regression analysis showed that higher antibiotic use knowledge scores of parents were protective factors for rational antibiotic use.Parents with higher antibiotic use knowledge scores were less likely to ask for antibiotics(OR=0.34,95%CI:0.18-0.64,P=0.001),stop antibiotic therapy as soon as their children's symptoms relieved(OR=0.38,95%CI:0.23-0.60,P<0.001),self-medicate their children with antibiotics(OR=0.41,95%CI:0.26-0.65,P<0.001)and use antibiotics as prophylaxis(OR=0.42,95%CI:0.34-0.52,P<0.001).While keeping antibiotics at home was a risk factor for rational antibiotic use.Compared with parents who did not keep antibiotics at home,parents who kept were more likely to ask doctors for antibiotics(OR=2.12,95%CI:1.26-3.57,P=0.005),self-medicate their children with antibiotics(OR=4.45,95%CI:2.78-7.12,P<0.001)and use antibiotics prophylactically(ORF=3.23,95%CI:2.67-3.91,P<0.001).Besides,Logistic regression analysis also showed that parent as a mother(ORF=1.19,95%CI:1.01-1.41,P=0.034),with older children(OR-2.59,95%CI:2.11-3.18,P<0.001;OR=2.26,95%CI:1.85-2.76,P<0.001;OR=1.81,95CI:1.41-2.33,P<0.001),medical background(OR=1.72,95%CI:1.36-2.16,P<0.001),city residence(OR=1.27,95%CI:1.09-1.48,P=0.002)and monthly family income between 5001 and 10000 yuan(OR=0.81,95%CI:0.67-0.98,P=0.029)were siganificantly associated with the behavior of keeping antibiotics at home.ConclusionPoor antibiotic use knowledge and massive antibiotic misuse for children among parents are of great concern in Ningbo City.The higher knowledge predicted smarter antibiotic use behaviors.Tailored health education programs are needed to improve the knowledge and behaviors of antibiotic use among children parents and reduce storage of antibiotics at home according to these influencing factors found in this research.