Assessment of the Awereness Level of Mothers About Antibiotic Use for Dental Infections in Children at the Age of 0-12

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between socio-demographic factors and the awereness level of mothers about antibiotic use for dental infections in children. METHODS: A questionary form was given to mothers who referred to our clinic with any dental complaints of their children to evaluate the knowledge level about antibiotic use for dental infections. This form also contained questions about age, sociocultural status, educational level and antibiotic consumption during dental infections. For statistical analysis of the data mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentage distributions and chi-square based cross tables were used. RESULTS: 74.6% of the mothers were housewives and 25.4% were working mothers. The distribution of the mothers' educational level was 37.7% for primary school, 31.6% for middle school, 18.3% for high school and 12.3% for university level. Sixty-three of the mothers answered 'yes' to the question whether they had a knowledge about unnecessary antibiotic use while fifty-one of them answered 'no'. There was a statistically significant relationship between the level of education and this expression (p<0.001). In addition, there was a statistically significant relationship between employement status of the mothers and responses to the same question (p<0.05). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Priority should be given to education of mothers for increasing the awereness of the parents about rational antibiotic use, oral health and dental infections.

Keywords

• antibiotics
• rational usage of drug
• childhood
• parents
• dental infections