The aim of the paper was an estimation of the reasons for ill children attendance and the children and their parents' compliance in general practitioner practices in rural environment what is very poorly known in Poland.
Parents of 273 ill children agreed to fill in questionnaires at three GP practices from October 1999 to December 2000.
We have estimated the attendance reasons and children and their parents' compliance on the ground of parents' answers and information from the GPs. The average children age was 5.86 (+/- 3.89) years. The questionnaires concerned 49.5% girls and 50.5% boys. The attendance reasons were in 92.1%: fever and/or cough. 90.1% children had respiratory infections: 73.3% - upper airways infections, 16.8% - lower airways infections. The most often reason of the late attendance was the long distance to the doctor's practice. We noticed children's non-compliance in 53.25% of cases. The most often was incorrect administration of non-antibiotic drugs. The most often was correct administration of antibiotics in tablets. We found dependence among others between children's compliance and diagnosis, the kind and form of medicine, frequency of dosage, parents' knowledge about therapy.
The subject of children's non-compliance, especially in those from rural environment, has never been investigated in Poland. We hope that our investigation by underlining the most frequent diseases in children in rural environment can contribute into future GPs' education.