Knowledge, attitude and practice study of surgical prophylaxis of antibiotics in teaching staff and post-graduate residents

 

 

Abstract               Background: Nowadays antibiotic drugs are the main line of treatment in clinical practice. At the same time, there is an unnecessary or inappropriate use of antibiotics is also increased which significantly contributed to the problem of antibiotic resistance. The teaching staff and postgraduate students play a key role in the prevention of transmissions of resistant bacterial infections and promotion of its awareness among patients and communities. Very few studies of knowledge, attitude and practice of health care professionals are published regarding antibiotics resistance. Aims and Objectives: To explore the perceptions of knowledge, attitude and practice of antibiotic use and its resistance in teaching staff and postgraduate students in a tertiary teaching care center. Material and Methods: This is a cross-sectional quantitative questionnaire based study in which 200 persons including teaching staff and post graduate students were given a 20 item pretested self-administered questionnaire. The survey questions focused on key topics related to antibiotic knowledge, attitude and perceived practices pertaining to antibiotic usage. The response rate was 100%. Results: In the present study the survey done among 110 male and 90 female health professionals. Study group from 21 to 30 years of age group were consists of maximum 82 respondents of survey. Response to all 20 questions were elaborated thoroughly and analyzed in tabulated form. Conclusion: Antimicrobials being the most commonly used drugs. There is a need of anti-microbial agents usage guidelines and restriction policies for the rational prescribing of antimicrobials.

Key Word: Drug Resistance, Antibiotics, MICU, RICU.

 

 

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays antibiotic drugs are the main line of treatment in clinical practice. At the same time, there is an unnecessary or inappropriate use of antibiotics is also increased which significantly contributed to the problem of antibiotic resistance.¹ As antibiotic resistance is a major threat to health care in clinical practice. Similarly treatment of lethal bacterial infections has become very difficult due to the rapid spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.² This scenario is seen to be worse in developing countries because of over-the counter sales of antibiotics, self-medication without prescription, inadequate regulation of antibiotics, high cost of medical consultations due to which patients avoid the consultation and choose inappropriate antibiotics on their own.^3,4 Studies explained that more than 50% of antibiotics worldwide are bought without prescription.^5,6 Various factors just like prescribing on patient’s demand, drug promotional practices, prescribers knowledge and experience, diagnostic uncertainty, seniors as a role model, overload of patients and negligence of proper prescribing also contribute in the antibiotic resistance.⁷ Thus to curtail antibiotic resistance we have to assess first the knowledge and perceptions and prescribing pattern of the health care providers. The teaching staff and postgraduate students play a key role in the prevention of transmissions of resistant bacterial infections and promotion of its awareness among patients and communities. Very few studies of knowledge, attitude and practice of health care professionals are published regarding antibiotics resistance. So, we aimed to do this study to highlight the knowledge, attitude and practice of antibiotic usage among teaching staff and postgraduate students at the tertiary care center.

 

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To explore the perceptions of knowledge, attitude and practice of antibiotic use and its resistance in teaching staff and postgraduate students in a tertiary teaching care center.

METHODOLOGY

The present study was conducted during a 1 year period between June 1st 2017 to May 31st 2018at the tertiary care center, Govt. Medical College, Solapur, Maharashtra, India. It is a questionnaire-based cross-sectional survey among the teaching staff and postgraduate students. The questionnaire was self-structured and pre-validated by the subject experts for its content and relevance. The questionnaire comprised of 20 questions of knowledge, practice and attitude. Some questions were yes or no type and some were multiple choice questions. The questionnaire was distributed to 200 medical health professionals and asked to complete the questionnaire.

 

RESULT

In the present study we studied questionnaire answered by 200 heath care professionals i.e. teaching staff and post graduate students. The result is tabulated and analyzed.

 

Table1: Demographic characteristics of participants.

 

Table 2: Number and Percentage of respondents.

DISCUSSION

The results from our study clearly show that the knowledge, attitude and practice of teaching staff and postgraduate students regarding antibiotic resistance and side effects are needs to be updated as per recent guidelines. Different studies were done in U.A.E.⁹ and Jordan¹⁰ where the surveyed population believed that antibiotics should be routinely available at home and already stored antibiotics at home without a prescription.¹⁰ The rationale of healthcare professionals with formal training in prescribing and dispensing antibiotics, positively minimizes the chances of antibiotic resistance.¹¹ The study done by Borg et al.in conclusion advised that better education and training of healthcare professionals by informing them about changes in epidemiological trends in critical pathogens and identifying antibiotic consumption practices is necessary for good clinical practices.¹²Studies done by Yanhong Hu et al.¹³, AlemneshJifar et al.¹⁴, Badar V.et al.⁰⁷ shows similar results. Some studies established a good knowledge healthcare professional encouraging the importance of better knowledge for better health practices.¹¹Attitude regarding AMA resistance, prevention and selection of necessary AMA was observed satisfactorily positive. The clinical effectiveness of antibiotics depends on their correct use i.e. 4R Right diagnosis, Right dose, Right drug, Right duration.¹⁵Physicians decisions might be influenced by multiple factors like pressure from patients, lack of updated information, incorrect dose- underdoes /overdose; incorrect duration of treatment, prolonged post-surgical use of antibiotics or stoppage of antibiotics as soon as relief is obtained; unnecessary use of drug combinations, imprecise diagnosis- medication is given to cover all possible causes of illness-blanket covering.¹⁶On the other side, the patient-related factors also encourage resistance like demand for higher antibiotics, incomplete schedule, improper use- small doses, self-medications insistence of rapid recovery.⁰⁷

 

CONCLUSION

The awareness of antibiotic resistance is the first step towards curtailing its progress. Important aspects like restrictions on schedule H1and X, hand hygiene uses should be studied thoroughly. Prescription audits and data collection from manufacturers, prescribers and bulk users of antibiotics should be routinely monitored. Adequate training of updated drug schedules should be given to health professionals.

 

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