title: Antibiotic use in children and the use of medicines by parents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Antibiotic drugs are frequently used for viral infections in children. It is probable that health beliefs and parental concern have great influence on the use of drugs in children. This study, performed in The Netherlands, investigates whether the use of antibiotics in children is associated with the use of medicines by parents.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this observational cohort study, the authors selected 6731 children from the prescription database IADB.nl who did not receive antibiotics until their fifth birthday and 1479 children who received at least one antibiotic prescription every year. The authors then selected parents for each group of children (5790 mothers and 4250 fathers for the children who did not receive antibiotics and 1234 mothers and 1032 fathers for the children who regularly received antibiotics). The authors compared the use of antibiotics and other medicines between the two groups of parents.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Parents of children who received antibiotics recurrently were found to use more antibiotics themselves compared with parents of children who did not receive antibiotics. Moreover, this group also showed a higher percentage of chronic medication use: (11.3 vs 6.2% (mothers) and 13.1% vs 9.5% (fathers)). Mothers more often use antacids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), analgesics, anxiolytics, hypnotics, antidepressants, drugs for treatment of asthma and antihistamines. Fathers use more antacids, cardiovascular drugs, NSAIDs and asthma drugs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The parents of children who receive antibiotic drugs regularly use more medicines compared with the parents of children who use no antibiotic drugs. Parents' medicine use may influence that of children and is a factor physicians and pharmacists should take into account.
authors.affiliation: University of Groningen, Department of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Groningen 9713AV, The Netherlands. josta.de.jong@rug.nl
authors.forename: Josta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: de Jong
authors.forename: Jens H J
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Bos
authors.forename: Tjalling W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: de Vries
authors.forename: Lolkje T W
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: de Jong-van den Berg
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D010290:Parents; D012651:Self Medication / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents