Abstract
Background: Upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) are highly encountered by children all over the world with repeating episodes from 6-8 times during the year. However being of viral origin and a self-limited disease, many parents' attitudes forces physician to use antibiotics thus resulting in antibiotic resistance.
Objectives: To study the parental knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) toward antibiotic use among children with URTIs in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Methods: A d Self-administered questionnaire was distributed among parents presented at a random sample of primary schools in Saudi Arabia from January to October 2018.
Results: A total of 547 parents were included from different parts of Saudi Arabia, most of them were females, had a college degree and a moderate income. Overall, KAP toward using antibiotics in URTI for children was very low among 72% of subjects and was good in only 28% of subjects showing that there was inappropriate level of KAP among studied population.
Conclusion: Saudi parents have inadequate knowledge about antibiotic use in children for treating URTIs that showed incorrect answered for attitudes and practices.