Febre: conhecimentos e atitudes de pais e cuidadores de crianças e adolescentes.

Abstract

The literature describes that among the complaints in pediatric consultations, fever is the signal or symptom most frequent in clinics and emergency units, accounting for about 25% of cases. Despite all technological advances, greater access to the media and progress in various segments of pediatrics, fever continues to cause anguish and fear in parents and guardians of children, which creates burden on health services, self-medication and abusive and unnecessary prescription antipyretics. This descriptive cross-sectional, observational study conducted at the Hospital for Children and Adolescents, Campina Grande, Paraíba, aims to assess knowledge and behavior of parents and caregivers of children and adolescents of fever, attended this hospital. This is a convenience sample, not probabilistic, one hundred parents and caregivers. In the data collection applies a semi-structured questionnaire sociocultural variables of respondents are raised, beyond the understanding they have about fever: a way of measuring the fever; what is fever; the fear that causes fever; contumacious the measures taken to control fever. The risk of febrile seizure is the main fear on the part of respondents (77%) and that the use of antipyretic drugs without medical advice is common practice by respondents (73%). In the analysis of the variables using the statistical program SPSS version 20.0. This study allows to evaluate parents and caregivers have little knowledge, misperception and wrong attitudes toward fever of their children.