PARENTAL KNOWLEDGE ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS ABOUT FEVER IN CHILDREN

Background: Fever is a widespread occurrence in child. Fever is a common sign associated with most childhood diseases. It represents 70% of complaints to the pediatric and general medicine outpatient departments. The parents have too many misunderstandings and misinformation about fever management. objective: This study aimed to improve parental knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs when managing fever in children. Design: cross sectional studySetting: online surveyMethodology: A crosssectional study using a previously validated questionnaire conducted from July to September 2018 among parents of the feverish child. Parents answered a survey about their concept of fever in children and their practices about the current fever episode. Data were analyzed using SPSS V. 24.0. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the data; continuous data were presented as mean +/- standard deviation (SD), and categorical data was expressed as numbers with percentages. Main Outcome Measures: awareness and presence of misinformation regarding feverResults: a total of 450 completed questionnaires evaluated in the present study. 44.4% of parents believed that the temperature that representing fever is more than 38 degrees C. Parents (86.8%) require evidence-based orally information from physicians about the care of feverish children. 60.2% of parents give their children medication when the fever is higher than 38 degrees C. 60.2% parents prefer starting with administering antipyretics than the alternative methods. The majority of the studied parents (44.4%) favored suppositories antipyretics. Parents have similar concerns and fears about harmful outcomes from childhood fever. Conclusion: Lack of awareness and presence of misinformation regarding fever and febrile illness consider one of the most common public health problems experienced by parents of young children. The present research provides a spotlight on the knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of feverish child parents to reduce the misuse of antibiotics and antipyretics. Limitation: small sample size