Randomized controlled trial of parent therapeutic education on antibiotics to improve parent satisfaction and attitudes in a pediatric emergency department.

objectiveTo evaluate therapeutic education delivered in a pediatric emergency department to improve parents' satisfaction and attitudes about judicious antibiotic use.

methodsIn an emergency department of a tertiary pediatric hospital, children aged 1 month to 6 years and discharged with an oral antibiotic prescription for an acute respiratory or urinary tract infection were randomized to a patient therapeutic education on antibiotic use (intervention group) or fever control (control group) delivered to the parents (in the presence of the children) by a pharmacist trained in therapeutic education. Education consisted in a 30-minute face-to-face session with four components: educational diagnosis, educational contract, education, and evaluation. The main outcome measure was parent satisfaction about information on antibiotics received at the hospital, as assessed by a telephone interview on day 14. The secondary outcome was attitudes about antibiotic use evaluated on day 14 and at month 6.

resultsOf the 300 randomized children, 150 per arm, 259 were evaluated on day 14. Parent satisfaction with information on antibiotics was higher in the intervention group (125/129, 96.9%, versus 108/130, 83.0%; P=0.002, exact Fisher test).

interventionGroup parents had higher proportions of correct answers on day 14 to questions on attitudes about judicious antibiotic use than did control-group parents (P=0.017, Mann-Whitney U test).

conclusionTherapeutic education delivered by a clinical pharmacist in the pediatric emergency department holds promise for improving the use of antibiotics prescribed to pediatric outpatients.

trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT00948779 http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00948779.