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REDUCING PARENTAL
EXPECTATIONS FOR ANTIBIOTICS IN CHIDREN UNDER TREATMENT FOR |
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| Mainous found out that
providing physicians with tools for educating patients should be more
effective rather than focusing on educating physicians (7). In our
study, an evaluation tool was used combined with patient education. The
combination seems to have synergy. Gonzales found that combination of
patient and clinician interventions could safely reduce antibiotic
treatment of adults having acute bronchitis (11). In a similar study, 61% of the subjects expressed their belief that
antibiotics are effective for a condition of 5 days duration with
cough, sore throat, and clear nasal discharge (12). In this study
subjects in both groups did not expect antibiotics to treat nasal
discharge, but instead of it, they believed that fever should be treated
with antibiotics. It may be concluded from the findings that the given education was not as effective in maintaining the right behavior of the parents when they faced diagnoses related with ARIs. Parents lack the understanding of the normal presentation of an ARI and the effectiveness of antibiotics as a treatment. Past antibiotic usage may also contribute to inappropriate utilization and expectations for antibiotics. The scaring effect of terms used for respiratory diagnoses may have contributed to these results as well. Small sample group and typical problems of a telephone survey were limitations of the study. Conclusion: Patient and physician education plays the key role in interventions for rational use of antibiotics. Future research should focus on exploring ways of incorporating patient education into clinical practice. The results of this study have positive views for future interventions. We suggest using structured and semi-structured educations for the parents of children with ARIs. It is clear that an education as short as five minutes is effective in changing the behaviors and attitudes of parents, even in a long time manner. |
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