Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has negatively impacted patient outcomes and increased healthcare costs. AMS includes all activities and policies to promote judicious use of antimicrobials. Pharmacists are key players in AMS models worldwide. However, there is a research gap in the impact of pharmacists' roles as antimicrobial stewards in Malaysia and their potential of role expansion. This study aims to qualitatively explore hospital pharmacists' perspectives on the issue of AMR, the impact they made during implementation of AMS strategies and their visions in role expansion.Methods and materials: Individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 public hospital pharmacists involved in AMS activities from 13 hospitals in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor from March to July 2018. These audio-taped interviews were transcribed verbatim and imported into NVivo software version 10.0 (QSR). Thematic analysis method was used to identify themes from the qualitative data until theme saturation was reached.Results: The results demonstrated that the respondents have good understandings on the issue of AMR and its impact. They felt injudicious prescribing is one of the main causative factors of AMR. This is further fueled by the lack of public awareness in AMR and the culture of demanding for antimicrobials from healthcare professionals. The involvement of pharmacists was seen as impactful in improving healthcare professionals' compliance towards principles of good antimicrobial therapy as well as reducing the use of broad-spectrum antimicrobials. The respondents also recognised that their involvement in AMS strategies helped to portray a better professional image of pharmacists. Currently, most pharmacists involved in AMS strategies are ward pharmacists. The respondents envisioned more hospital pharmacists from other units such as inpatient and outpatient pharmacy to be involved and to incorporate AMS principles into their daily practices. Some respondents aspire to take up the role of leading the AMS team, however others disagreed as pharmacists lack the priviledge to diagnose. Conclusion:Public hospital pharmacists have good understandings on the issue of AMR and view themselves as playing impactful roles in AMS team. For future study, views of pharmacists from other regions of the country, private sector, non-ward based pharmacists as well as community pharmacists should be included.
BackgroundSugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) consumption is the major source of added sugar intake and a common unhealthy eating behavior among youth in China and around the world. Excessive intake of SSBs has a negative impact on both short- and long-term health of adolescent. The targeting nutritional education and behavioral guidance, single use or as a supplement to the policy intervention like sales ban, is a low cost and effective intervening approach. The purpose of this study was to identify unhealthy attitudes and behaviors that affect youth's consumption of sugary drinks to provide evidence for subsequent targeted interventions.MethodsUsing the stratified cluster sampling method, a questionnaire survey was conducted among 1560 junior school students in Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province, in northern China and Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, in southern China. The content of the questionnaire included sociodemographic characteristics, self-reported consumption frequency of SSBs, attitude, behaviors and habits related to SSBs consumption. The Cronbach coefficient of questions was 0.855. Data from the series surveys of 2012 and 2018 were also used in the long-term trend analysis.ResultsIn 1466 Chinese junior school students, 5.1 % consumed SSBs every day and 13.6 % consumed it 3-6 times/week. The binary logistic regression was significant (R2=31.1%, P=0.001), and the attitude and behavior factors contributed to 22.1% of the 31.1% variation that could be explained. Among all factors, four unhealthy attitudes or behaviors with the highest OR were "Drink SSBs as water" (OR=10.288, 95%CI: 6.392~16.558), "Deem SSBs not affect health” (OR=2.735, 95%CI: 2.032~3.681), "Just want to drink SSBs” (OR=2.302, 95%CI: 1.524~3.478) and “Purchase SSBs in advance” (OR=2.245, 95%CI: 1.454~3.465). The SSBs consumption frequency increased with the increase of risk score of unhealthy attitudes and behaviors. (χ²-trend=127.470, P<0.001). Both frequency of drinking SSBs and holding rates of unhealthy attitudes or behaviors decreased with the passage of time (P trend<0.005). The drinking times per month was significantly positively correlated with the risk scores from 2012 to 2020 (r=0.314, P<0.001).ConclusionThe consumption of sugary drinks was largely influenced by unhealthy attitudes and behaviors. Adolescents are in the critical period of cognitive and habit formation, thus targeted intervention should be taken to promote their SSBs related healthy attitude and behavior to reduce the intake of added sugar and benefit them for life.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2025 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.