Abstract

IMPACT OF PARENTAL EDUCATION BY CLINICAL PHARMACIST ON ANTIBIOTIC USE IN PAEDIATRIC POPULATION

M. Naufia*, Mouna Sri Ambati, Vennela Vasala, Shravya Bathini, Shifa Firdous

Abstract

The most widely sold medications in underdeveloped nations right now are antibiotics, which had led to an increase in antibiotic resistance. Mothers are essential in giving their children antibiotics because they are far too frequently afflicted with illnesses. The purpose of our study to ascertain the parents level antibiotic knowledge and how they support the prudent use of antibiotics. This was a prospective observational study conducted among 150 patients in pediatric department in District Government Hospital-Karimnagar. A questionnaire was designed and administrated to determine parents’ knowledge, attitude and practice regarding antibiotic use in children. We also conducted pre and post-tests to evaluate the improvement in knowledge of parents regarding antibiotics in pediatric population. The data was statistically analyzed by Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test in GraphPad Prism Version 10.4. We compared the KAP results of pre counselling and post counselling, among 150 patients. During the pre-counselling, we found that patient representatives have knowledge of 60%, attitude of 55% and practice of 62% about antibiotic usage. After the counselling it was increased to knowledge 89%, attitude of 83% and practice of 89%. Clinical pharmacist counselling is an effective strategy to promote rational antibiotic use in the paediatric population by empowering parents with essential knowledge and fostering responsible practices. These findings highlight the critical role of clinical pharmacists in addressing the global challenge of antibiotic resistance.

Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP), antibiotic resistance, rational use, clinical pharmacist.