Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice toward Antibiotic use with Acute Respiratory Infection among Parents of Children under Five Years

Parents are the main caregivers of children with acute respiratory infection (ARI). However, some of them are still unable to differentiate between viral and bacterial infections, which may ultimately lead to the misuse of antibiotics.

The objective of this study is to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) toward antibiotic use to treat ARI among Jordanian and Syrian refugee parents who have children under five years; and to examine the relationship between KAP and parental socio-demographic variables.

A descriptive cross-sectional design was used, and a self-administered questionnaire was distributed to a convenience sample of 204 Jordanian and Syrian parents.

60.8% of participants in this study were Jordanians and 39.2% were Syrians. The total score of knowledge toward antibiotic use was 2.85 (SD=1.43) out of 7, the score of attitudes was 46.13 (SD = 8.65) out of 70, while the score of practice was 17.5 (SD = 2.59) out of 25. Spearman’s correlation showed that father’s and mother’s education were positively correlated with attitude and/ or practice scores toward antibiotic use (p ≤ .05). T-test showed that Jordanian parents had a significantly higher practice score toward antibiotic use than Syrian parents (p ≤ .05).

There is a need to improve the awareness of parents through health education and to improve health insurance policy. Health education should target parents with low socio-economic status in general, and Syrian refugee parents in particular.