[Parental behavior during the most common childhood diseases].
The paper analyzes certain aspects of parental behaviour in situations of the most frequent children's diseases: their reactions, habits and some medical knowledge concerning antipyretics and antibiotics. An anonymous self-report questionnaire was applied. Five questions assessed demographic and seven the studied characteristics. 160 parents from the city and surrounding villages participated during period May - June 1993 in the offices of The Children and Adolescent Health Service in Krusevac. Most parents follow up the state of their children and/or try to help on their own before visiting the doctor. Only a small percentage decide to apply antibiotics. Those from villages and those with lower education are more likely to panic. Parents have habits of keeping antipyretics, tea and alcohol in home pharmacies in high percentage. They usually buy drugs or keep them from the previous children's disease. About half of them follow the instructions of doctor at what time the drug is to be applied. The rest take the advice of pharmacists, or act according to previous experience or drug declaration. 53.8% think that raised temperature should be lowered immediately when higher than 37 degrees C. About half of them connect the meaning of antibiotics with infection, but only 17.8% specifically with bacterial infections. It can be concluded that a parent is still an unreliable partner of a doctor for his often medically unjustified behaviour. It is specially characteristic for parents with elementary or secondary education, those from villages and unemployed parents.
Pavlović
M
M
Zdravstveni centar, Krusevac.
Zivković
N
N
D002648:Child; D002654:Child Care; D004194:Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D004522:Educational Status; D006701:Home Nursing; D006801:Humans; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*
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