Survey Looks At Parents' Views Of OTC Cold And Cough Medications For Children Under Age Six After Recent Safety Concerns

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 14 Dec 2007 - 12:00 PST

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A new survey from NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health examined parents' views in light of recent concerns about the safety and effectiveness of giving over-the-counter cold and cough medications to children, NPR's "Morning Edition" reports. An FDA advisory committee in October recommended that drug makers stop marketing OTC cold medications for use in children under age six. The recommendation came after six clinical trials by a group of pediatricians showed that OTC cold medications are no more effective than a placebo in relieving cold symptoms. About three children die each year after taking cold medications, and the deaths have been linked to potential overdoses, according to "Morning Edition."

Eighty-six percent of parents are aware of the safety concerns with the medications, the survey said. According to the survey, 58% of parents think OTC cold and cough medications are "somewhat safe" for children between ages two and six, while 23% of parents believe the medications are "very safe" (Aubrey, "Morning Edition," NPR, 12/13).

The survey indicates that many parents are not sure whether they should continue to use cold and cough medications for their children under age six. According to the survey:

• 34% of parents with children under age six said they have at least temporarily stopped using OTC cold and cough medications since concerns about the treatments arose;
  
  
• 15% of parents with children ages two to six say they plan to stop using such medications;
  
  
• 30% of such parents said they plan to continue to use the treatments; and
  
  
• 28% of parents with pre-elementary school children said they have not decided what to do, and other parents responded that they were not aware of the recent safety concerns or had never given their children OTC cold and cough medications.

The survey also looked at who parents trust when making decisions about the safety of OTC cold and cough medications in their children. According to the survey 71% of parents with children under age six trust pediatricians "a lot," while half of parents said they have confidence in pharmacists. Finally, only 29% of such parents said they have a lot of trust in FDA (NPR/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health joint release, 12/13).

Sixty-two percent of parents with children under age six said their doctor has recommended using OTC cold or cough medicines for their children ("Morning Edition," NPR, 12/13).

The survey was conducted by telephone from Nov. 15 to Nov. 25 and includes responses from 1,522 adults, with an oversample of parents with young children. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for the full sample and plus or minus five percentage points for parents with young children (NPR/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health joint release, 12/13).

The survey is available online.

The "Morning Edition" segment also is available online.

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.