Mothers' knowledge,attitudes,and practices of antibiotic use for children in Jordan

Objective: children very frequently attend to physicians with upper respiratory tract infections (urtis). antibiotics (abs) are prescribed often for urtis despite their viral origin and are often used inappropriately. this study investigates factors that influence knowledge,attitudes and practices related to antibiotic use among mothers of children with urti in irbid governorate. methods: a cross-sectional design is used for this research. a sample of 401 mothers of children 6 months to 12 years old were surveyed using interviewer-administered knowledge-attitudes-practices questionnaire,between january and april 2011,recruited from two comprehensive health centers in irbid governorate. results: a small proportion (21.7%) of jordanian mothers demonstrated adequate knowledge about antibiotics,some of them (14.5%) provided responses suggesting positive attitude,and only 11.2% reported good ab practices. logistic regression revealed that antibiotic knowledge is associated with father's education (or= 2.21,p=0.022) and with mother's work in the medical field (or= 2.9,p=0.011). mother's occupation predicted positive ab attitudes (or=3.1,p=0.009)). antibiotic practices were associated with having positive ab attitudes (or= 6.3,p<0.001) and with mothers being informed about ab resistance (or= 5.1,p=0.012). no association was detected between knowledge about abs and ab practices. conclusions: the majority of jordanian mothers lack the basic knowledge and the positive attitude towards antibiotic use,complicated with poor ab practices. comprehensive multilevel national campaigns to boost positive attitude towards abs are urgently needed in jordan. © 2015 dar publishers ? the university of jordan. all rights reserved.