A questionnaire survey of children and their parents visiting pharmacies dispensing medical insurance-covered drugs was conducted to gain information on medication methods.It was found that mothers played a very important role in children's drug taking and their skill in getting children to take drugs was important in achieving a high compliance rate.The dosage forms that seemed to be the most difficult to take were powders and granules,partly because of their frequent prescription,followed by liquids,solutions,and syrups.The reasons for difficulty in taking drugs were“bitterness",“smell",“coarseness",“sweetness",and“large volume" in decreasing order of frequency.
To have their children take drugs,parents rarely used a commercial jelly for facilitating medication but often gave them ice cream,yogurt,in decreasing order of frequency.The infrequent use of commercial jellies for facilitating medication was despite the fact that the flavor had been changed to one liked better by children.The results of this survey suggest that jellies for facilitating medication for children may contribute more to improving compliance if the various needs of parents for improvements can be met.
