Aim: This study was designed to test the Sudanese parents' knowledge, attitudes and practice (KAP) toward self medicating their children. Design and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out by using a pretested questionnaire. Non probability convenient sampling method was used to select the participants. The total sample size was 1000 parents from different health settings in Khartoum State, Sudan in the period from January to June 2011. Results: The obtained response rate was 94.9%. The majority of Sudanese parents in this study 84% used to recommend western medicines to their children. More than one-third of children had received parental self medication in the month preceding this study. The results revealed that parents in 95.7% cases, self medicated their children from minor illnesses. The most frequently used medicines are antibiotics 36.6% followed by paracetamol 31.5%, even though the most common symptom reported was fever 39.7%. In case of self-treatment failure; 64.0% of responded parents used to consult physicians in public settings, while 8.0% seek advice from the community pharmacists. The main reasons of parental self medication were the expensive consultation fees and the long waiting time in the clinics. Conclusion: The study revealed that parents' knowledge was inadequate, and their parental self medication practice showed to be inappropriate. The study outcomes urge instant move toward educating parents on risk of liberal use of medicines in children.
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Eldalo et al. (2013) studied this question.