AWARENESS LEVEL OF PARENTS TOWARD ANTIBIOTICS THOSE ARE PRESCRIBED TO THEIR CHILDREN IN AL-DAMMAM CITY

Background: Misuse of antibiotics is worldwide problem and annoying pediatricians. This misuses result in the increase the prevalence of one of global health problem which is antibiotic Resistance. Many studies mentioned that misusing of antibiotics is related to antibiotic resistance. The main reason of antibiotics misuse is low public awareness towards antibiotics indications. Also, patient's knowledge and practice with the antibiotic like self-prescription is common in developing countries. The antibiotics prescribed from private pharmacies are given to parents and parents are responsible to give medications to their children. So, we need to increase parents' awareness toward antibiotics usage to decrease the incidence of antibiotic resistance. Objective: To evaluate the parents’ level of awareness towards antibiotics those prescribed to their children in Al-Dammam city, Saudi Arabia. Methods: Questionnaire based on cross-sectional study. Questionnaires filled by parents whom have children less than 12 years old in public places randomly in the period from October to November 2018. The questionnaires has two parts: the first part is containing social-demographic data. While the second part: KAP of parents towards antibiotics. Data entering and analysis by SPSS. Results: Questionnaires have been distributed to 450 parents, most of participants were aged 20-29 years/old, the vast majority of participants have misconception regarding the antibiotics indications and (40%) of participants chose that antibiotics use for fever, (22%) for cough and(21%) do not know. Regarding parents’ attitude toward antibiotics, (71.3%) have used antibiotics for their children but fortunately, Majority of the participants believe that their children don’t need to antibiotics every time when they are sick (70%). In addition, Most of the participants believe that antibiotics may harm the children (60%) Conclusion: Level of awareness of parents in Dammam city is moderately acceptable. We can expect antibiotics resistance to happen among new generation in Al-Dammam city if there is no enough campaigns to increase the awareness and to fill the gap. Keywords: Antibiotic, Awareness, Saudi Arabia, KAP, Antibiotic resistance