Assessment of Knowledge and Performance of the Parents at the Management of Fever in Children

Abstract

Background When a child’s body temperature rises, most parents become very worried that high fever may harm the child; in this study, knowledge and performance of the parents at the time of fever in children and how they act when encountering children’s fever were studied. Materials and Methods In this cross-sectional descriptive study, samples (300 parents of children under 10 years) were selected using the convenience sampling method among the children admitted to Children's Hospital of Tabriz, Iran, and these parents completed the research made questionnaire of parental knowledge and performance at the time of fever in children. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Results The most common complication of high fever from the parents’ views was febrile seizure in 141 cases (47%). The use of corticosteroids for the treatment of fever in this study was observed in 23 cases (7.7%), and 40.7% of mothers had received their information about fever and how to manage it in children from doctors and nurses. In this study 87 (29%) of mothers had used thermometer to check for the child’s fever. In total, 53% of mothers knew the correct definition of standard fever temperature. Results showed that 161 (53.7%) of mothers believed in feeding the child more fluids than usual, 21 (7%) believed in feeding the child less fluids than usual, and 118 (39.3%) believed in feeding the child the same amount of fluids as before. In total, 25.7% of mothers had used antibiotics to treat their child’s fever. Conclusion Fever phobia continues to be common among parents. Parents have low level of awareness about children’s fever. Such low awareness and parents’ wrong perception of fever and their excessive fear and anxiety cause them fail to act properly.