Perception and Parent’s Knowledge about High Body Temperatures in Children and Treatment Methods at Home

Background: Fever is one of the most common medical problems in children that needs immediate medical attention. The objective of the study was to gauge the knowledge of parents about fever in their children and what treatment methods they do at home to treat it through a questionnaire. Patients and Methods: The study involved random selection of Saudi parents who have had febrile children. Parents were interviewed using a standard questionnaire to obtain sociodemographic information and to assess their knowledge about fever. The study also determined methods that the parents were using at home to treat fever. Results: A total of 353 parents completed the questionnaires. The study sample consisted mainly of mothers (62.3%). Most of the parents who participated in the study have one child (47.3%) followed by parents who have two children (42.8%). There were only three parents who have more than four children (.8%). Most of the parents were between 18-30 years old (46.7%) followed by parents between 31-40 years old (40.5%). There were only seven parents who were older than fifty years (2%). Most of the parents attained a college/university degree (47.9%) followed by parents who had secondary certificate (34.6%). Interestingly, eight parents had a post graduate degree (2.3%). Fifty four percent of the parents are working (192) while the other forty five percent are not (161). A total of 38% of the parents believed that the best place to take the temperature of the child is the ear (tympanic) followed by armpit (axilla) 37.1%. The rest of the parents took temperature orally (21%) and rectally (4%) . In this study, about 43% believed that 37 degrees Celsius is the normal body temperature of a child followed by 36 degrees Celsius (20.4%). Approximately 30% of the parents considered a child with a temperature of 38-38.4 degrees Celsius as feverish followed by 38.5-39.90 degrees Celsius (26.3%). In this study, 73.1% of the parents did not believe that alternating drugs is useful in cases where the temperature did not lower after administering an antipyretic drug. Almost 50% of the parents believed that seizure is the complication of fever followed by brain damage, dehydration, coma, and death. Parents’ most frequently reported measurement of a child’s temperature was best by using an electronic thermometer (34.8%) followed by an ear thermometer (28.3%). Other parents measured the temperature of their child by using their hands and with a mercurial thermometer. Most parents measured the temperature every 30 minutes to 1 hour (37.4%) followed by every 15 to 30 minutes (23.2%). When asked about the drug usually given to the child to reduce fever, the majority of the parents reported giving paracetamol (80%) while the others gave antibiotics (9.3%), ibuprofen (4.8%), and aspirin (1.1%). We also found that most of the parents use physical methods to relieve and treat fever such as tepid sponge bath with cold water (38.8%), cold showering (24.9%), tepid sponge bath with hot water (21.5%) and other methods. In order to determine the right dose of the antipyretic drug administered to the feverish child, 85% of the parents used a specific measuring spoon or syringe containing the drug. Others used a regular teaspoon or tablespoon. Most of the parents when asked how the right fever lowering drugs and doses was decided, they indicated that they would follow the previous advice from the pediatrician (43.6%, 39.4%). Others consulted a pharmacist, or others, or relied on information gathered from media. Conclusions: This study shows that parents should be more aware about high body temperatures and its consequences. There should be more health education among parents to correct the misconceptions they have about fever. Also, parents should be informed about different home treatments and their consequences. There is a need to develop programs that educate parents and provide them with information they need to better address the fever of their children.