Antibiotic use for upper respiratory tract infections in children: A cross-sectional survey of knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of parents in Greece

A knowledge-attitude-practice questionnaire was developed and distributed to Greek parents caring for children who were 5-6 years old, between January and July of the same school year. The sample of the study contained parents from all geographic areas of Greece.The majority of Greek parents (80%) believed that UTRIs are mostly self-limited, although 74% of them expected to receive antibiotics when such a diagnosis was given. Earache was the most common reason for which parents expected antibiotics (45%). Greek parents rarely gave antibiotics to their children without medical advice (10%) and most (88%) believed that unnecessary antibiotic use drives antibiotic resistance and they were happy to receive symptomatic therapy if instructed by their physician. Almost 70% of parents confused antibiotics with other medicines used for symptomatic therapy for a child with URTI.Greek parents have a trusted relationship with their paediatrician and rarely give antibiotics without medical advice, indicating that parents contribute less than expected to antibiotic misuse. Parents also appreciate the benign course of most URTIs and the fact that unnecessary antibiotic use is harmful. More time needs to be invested in educating mostly physicians on the potential benefit from reducing antibiotic prescribing for children with URTI.Over the past decade, the emergence of antibiotic resistance has been recognised as an important public health problem because discovery of new antibiotics is no longer keeping pace with the spread of highly resistant bacterial pathogens [1]. Prescription of antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) is very common practice in paediatrics [2-6], although there is sufficient evidence to support the viral origin of most of those illnesses [7,8]. However, even some of the bacterial illnesses (such as otitis media and sinusitis) are usually self-limited, and antibiotic treatment is unnecessary. A recent report has documented that even if common