Knowledge, attitude and practice about antibiotic use among caregivers of rural preschool children

ObjectiveTo investigate the knowledge,attitude,and practice(KAP) about antibiotic use among caregivers of rural children aged 0-7 years in Shandong province for effective health intervention on rational antibiotic use.MethodsA total of 727 caregivers of children aged 0-7 years were randomly selected from 12 villages in a county with probability-proportional-to-size sampling and a face-to-face interview was conducted with a semi-structurd questionnaire.The differences in the situation of KAP among various caregivers were analyzed.ResultsThe median antibiotic knowledge score(AKS) was 4.0 and there were only 2.35%(17/722) of the caregivers recognized all the antibiotics from the list.AKS was significantly different in caregivers with different educational level and household income(both P<0.01) and the average AKS of the parents was significantly higher than that of the grandparents of the children(P<0.01).The caregivers with higher AKS showed a higher proportions in correct attitudes towards purchase,usage,storage of antibiotic than the caregivers with lower AKS(all P<0.01).ConclusionInadequate knowledge and misconceptions about antibiotic are prevalent and there is an urgent need to conduct education program on rational antibiotic use among caregivers of rural children in Shandong province.