Attitudes Toward Rational Drug Use and Medication Self-management Among Parents of Children with Epilepsy

Background: Epileptic seizures are controlled with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). The purpose of using AEDs is to prevent seizures by maintaining the effective dose of one or more AEDs. Using a medication according to its prescription involving dosage and dosing times is expressed as medication adherence. Objectives: This study was performed to assess medication self-management and attitudes toward rational drug use among parents of children with epilepsy. Methods: A descriptive and cross-sectional design was used in this study. The data were collected using a data collection form, the Parental Attitude Scale for Rational Drug Use (PASRDU), and the Turkish Pediatric Epilepsy Medication Self-management Questionnaire (PEMSQ-TR). Results: The mean scores of participants (n = 192) on the PASRDU were 156.02 (standard deviation [SD] = 9.86), 133.02 (SD = 7.74), and 23 (SD = 7.58) on the total scale, accurate and conscious use subdimension, and effective and safe use subdimension, respectively. The mean scores of participants on the PEMSQ-TR were 81.38 (SD = 7.13), 42.4 (SD = 6.32), 24.3 (SD = 1.6), 11.36 (SD = 4.35), and 3.32 (SD = 1.94) on the total scale, information about epilepsy and treatment subdimension, adherence to treatment and clinic appointments subdimension, treatment-related obstacles subdimension, and treatment and social life subdimension, respectively. Parents’ educational status (F = 0.01, P 0.05), child’s age at first seizure (U = 0.026, P 0.05), frequency of seizure (U = 0.043, P 0.05), age of the child (χ 2= 0.002, P 0.05), and parents’ age (F = 0.036, P 0.05) had a significant effect on the total and subscale scores of the PASRDU and PEMSQ-TR. Conclusions: This study showed that although parents of children with epilepsy had positive attitudes toward rational drug use, their epilepsy medication self-management was relatively poor. The improvement of the understanding of medication self-management can ultimately increase adherence, which will affect the clinical outcomes and quality of life in children with epilepsy.