Original Article

Knowledge, Belief and Misconceptions of the Parents About Fever

  • Kayı Eliaçık
  • Ali Kanık
  • Gülşah Oyman
  • Hacer Rastgel
  • Selda Güngör
  • Murat Anıl
  • Mehmet Helvacı
  • Ali Rahmi Bakiler

Received Date: 11.11.2011 Accepted Date: 27.12.2011 Meandros Med Dent J 2012;13(1):5-7

OBJECTIVE:

Fever is one of the most common reasons of pediatric emergency admissions. Most of the parents think that fever is a disease, not a symptom. In this study a questionnaire was administered in the pediatric emergency service of Tepecik Training and Research Hospital. In the questionnaire we aimed to determine the parental perceptions and management.

MATERIALS and METHODS:

The study was conducted between January and March 2011 with 238 parents who admitted to pediatric emergency service with fever complaint. For collecting the data 28 questions were asked to determine the parental behavior about fever in the waiting room. The data were evaluated with SPSS 18. 0 programme.

RESULTS:

According to the answers in the study 86.1% of the parents applied a procedure to their children. 44.5% of families thought that decreasing the body temperature means to heal the disease and they came to emergency room for the fever which is not regressive. The families who thought like that also used alcohol, water with vinegar more often than the others. In the evaluation of fever knowledge of families there is no relation between mother's occupation, education level and age, but there is a relation between father's age.

SUMMARY:

There is no correlation between education and the awareness about fever; the management is wrong either way. There is a need to inform public on the beneficial effects.

Keywords: Child, high fever, antipiretic application