Introduction:

self-medication is a common practice to alleviate symptoms of various diseases, in the child population such as pharyngitis and rhinopharyngitis that are common in health centers in Peru.

Objective:

to determine the factors associated with self-medication in children with upper respiratory tract diseases.

Material and methods:

analytical cross-sectional observational study. The sample size was 206 parents who went with their children to the emergency service. A questionnaire approved by Valenzuela m was used. And the SPSS program to find the frequency, the bivariate analysis and the multivariate analysis of Poisson logistic regression.

Results:

the prevalence of self-medication in children was 91,3%. Parents who only studied primary and secondary school were more likely to self-medicate their children PRa=1,22 (95% CI: 1,01-1,40). The first-born were protected from self-medication PRa=0,86 (95% CI: 0,76-0,97). Parents who were between 20 and 29 years of age obtained PRa=1,04 (95% CI: 0,96-1,13), children under 7 years old, PRa=0,99 (95% ci: 0,91-1,07) and parents of family that had 1 child PRa=1,04 (95% CI:0,90-1,20).

Conclusions:

the educational level and the order number of the child, such as being the first-born, had a significant association with self-medication in children.

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