Antibiotic Resistance and Usage—A Survey on the Knowledge, Attitude, Perceptions and Practices among the Medical Students of a Southern Indian Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Background: Examining the knowledge, attitude, perceptions and practices (KAP) of the medical students regarding antibiotic resistance (ABR) and use can help us in devising suitable educational interventions for them, tailored according to their earlier held knowledge, beliefs, capabilities and experience. Methods: A cross sectional, questionnaire based survey was conducted among the second year medical students of a teaching hospital, whereby their KAP regarding antibiotic use and resistance was assessed by using a five point Likert scale, whose responses ranged from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree,’ ‘always’ to ‘never and ‘very important’ to ‘unimportant’. The data was analysed by using simple descriptive statistics. Wherever it was relevant, the Chi-square test was used to determine any significant difference. Results: The response rate was 100 per cent. The number of respondents who agreed that ABR was an important and a serious public health issue in our teaching hospital (n = 66, 68 per cent), was significantly less (p < 0.001) as compared to the number of respondents who agreed that ABR was an important and a serious issue which the country (n = 86, 88.65 per cent) and the world (n = 88, 90.7 per cent) were facing. Only 77.3 per cent (n = 75) of the respondents were aware that bacteria were not responsible for causing colds and flu, while the remaining 22.7 per cent (n = 22) were not knowledgeable about this fact. More than 80 per cent rated the adverse effect profile of the antibiotic and the risk of a superinfection as the important factors which deserved consideration. Cost of the antibiotic was considered to be an important factor deserving consideration by only 56.7 percent (n=55) of the participants. Conclusions: Our survey revealed that most of the students were aware of the antimicrobial resistance and its consequences. The only concern was their casual attitude regarding the antibiotic use. Further educational interventions are necessary to improve their understanding and perceptions on antibiotic resistance, as well as their attitude towards antibiotic use.

Keywords

• education
• undergraduates
• knowledge
• antibiotics
• antimicrobial chemotherapy