Annual Report - FIP

Medicines
Information to
Children and
their Carers
The recipient of the 2006 Young Pharmacists Professional Innovation award was Dr Rebekah Moles
from Australia.
Rebekah was awarded 1000 Euros to commence a project to develop medication education packages
for children and their carers. Below is an update of the ongoing research which was seeded by the FIP
innovation award.
Background
Use of medicines in children is high. The Australian National Health Survey indicates that 42% of
children under 15 used medications within a two week period prior to survey (National Health survey
2004-5). Previous studies indicate that problems in medicating children are common (Sepponen et al.
2002, Kairuz et al. 2007), however more information is needed on the nature and extent of the problems
of medicine use in children in general. Further, to be able to use medicines correctly, parents need
information. There are numerous sources of information, the reliability of which greatly vary. Pharmacists
are an underused source of reliable and easily reachable information. Research shows that the most
important health information sources for children are parents, especially the mother (Chambers et al.
1997, Menacker et al. 1999, Hämeen-Anttila et al. 2005). However, there are no studies on what
information sources parents use when medicating their children, and furthermore, how they evaluate
the reliability of this information. There is also a lack of knowledge on attitudes of parents when
medicating their children.
Aims of the study
The aim of this research is to explore current trends in children's medicine use.
More specifically, the objectives are to explore:
? how common medicine use is among children under 15 years
? what medicines are commonly used
? for which illnesses and symptoms children use OTC-medicines and prescription medicines
? what kind of problems parents face when medicating their children
? what sources parents use in finding information about medicines
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