Knowledge and beliefs, behaviors, and adherence among Latino parents or legal guardians related to antibiotic use for upper respiratory tract infections in children under 6 years of age

Abstract Objective Evaluate parents or legal guardians' knowledge and beliefs, behaviors, and adherence regarding antibiotic use for upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) in their children who are younger than 6 years. Design A cross-sectional study from September 2016 to February 2017. Setting Emergency department with a pediatric unit. Participants One hundred and one parents or legal guardians who visited one of the selected emergency departments during the study period. Intervention Administration of a validated questionnaire to assess knowledge and beliefs, behaviors, and adherence regarding antibiotic use for URTI. Main outcome measures Knowledge and beliefs, behaviors, and adherence regarding antibiotic use for URTI. Results Items with the least desired scores were seen in the "knowledge and beliefs" domain. Higher number of antibiotics used for URTI during the last year ( P P  = 0.03) were associated with least desired knowledge and beliefs scores. The "behaviors" domain contained the items with the best scores: higher education level ( P  = 0.05), fewer antibiotics used for URTI during the last year ( P  = 0.05), and older age ( P  = 0.02) were the only variables associated with better behaviors. For the "adherence" domain, lower education level ( P Conclusion Findings of our study support the need for proper antibiotic education among parents, especially in those with an increased risk of antibiotic misuse and overuse. Pharmacists and physicians need to establish a dialogue with parents or legal guardians to discuss how antibiotics work, what types of infection they treat, and how to prevent antibiotic resistance. Sociodemographic variables can be used to identify at-risk groups and to develop successful interventions.