Childhood fever: Parental paracetamol administration after consulting out-of-hours general practice

Abstract

Background

Current guidelines emphasise prudent use of paracetamol in febrile children without pain. Little evidence is available on paracetamol administration by parents in general and post-GP-consultations.

Objectives

To investigate if and how often parents of febrile children administer paracetamol to their child after consulting a GP during out-of-hours care. To explore if condition (painful or not), socio-economic status and age influenced this behaviour.

Methods

This was a pre-planned secondary study, attached to an RCT (n = 25,355) that studied the effect of an illness-focused interactive booklet on antibiotic prescriptions in febrile children between three months and 12 years, at 20 GP out-of-hours centres across the Netherlands. Baseline data and ICPC codes were retrieved from the GP out-of-hours centre database. During a telephone survey two weeks after consulting a GP out-of-hours centre, a random sample of parents was asked if and how often they had given their child paracetamol.

Results

Parents of 548 children participated. Most parents administrated paracetamol for two weeks after consulting (83.8%). Children received 11 doses on average during follow-up (maximum 72 doses). Paracetamol administration increased with age. Age three to six months received paracetamol in 68% (17/25) of the cases versus 89.6% (121/135) in children aged five to twelve years. Frequency of paracetamol administration was similar for most common infections, regardless of being painful or painless.

Conclusion

Most children who consulted out-of-hours general practice for fever and common infections received paracetamol at home during their illness episode, regardless of a painful condition being present. Paracetamol administration increased with age.

Keywords:

• Child
• infection
• general practice
• paracetamol

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interests. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development [ZonMW grant 836-021022] funded this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing the report.