Knowledge of Antimicrobial Resistance among Veterinary Students and Their Personal Antibiotic Use Practices: A National Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

The challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is grave in developing countries. Antimicrobials are misused yet stakeholders’ contribution to antimicrobial stewardship is low. Veterinary students are future prescribers and their knowledge could influence progress in combating AMR; hence, there is a need to assess their knowledge, attitude, and awareness of AMR. A multi-institutional questionnaire was administered to undergraduates in Nigerian veterinary schools. It comprised demographics, own personal antibiotic usage, and knowledge, attitude, and awareness of AMR in humans and animals. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used for analyses. Of the 426 respondents, 39.2% reported personal antimicrobial use in the previous six months. Over 60% received knowledge scores lower than average and >87% requested more education on clinical use and prescriptions pre-graduation, monitored dispensing of antimicrobials, conducting AMR research, and confirmed link among human, animal, and environmental health. Less than 25% of respondents were aware of antimicrobial stewardship and global efforts/organizations for AMR. Final year students have 9-fold and 14-fold more satisfactory knowledge on antimicrobials in humans and animals compared with other students, respectively (p = 0.001). Final year students also have more knowledge (13×) and awareness of contributory factors (3×) on AMR (p = 0.001) than other students. Unsatisfactory knowledge on AMR issues exists among veterinary students yet willingness to improve was observed. Identified knowledge, attitude, and gaps in AMR awareness should be targeted by veterinary schools in Nigeria.

The Impacts of Animal Health Service Providers on Antimicrobial Use Attitudes and Practices: An Examination of Poultry Layer Farmers in Ghana and Kenya

“…Except for evidence that AHSPs are associated with farmers having prescriptions, we did not find consistent and significant associations between self-reported prudent use and withdrawal practices and frequency of seeking advice across the five types of AHSPs included in this study (i.e., government veterinarians, private veterinarians, extension officers, feed distributors, and agrovet employees). These findings are somewhat consistent with knowledge, attitudes, and practices studies of AHSPs that document variable understandings of antimicrobial stewardship and impacts on prudent use, and so suggest that seeking advice from these providers may not improve prudent practices on the farm [10,23,24]. Combined with these earlier findings, this study emphasizes the need for antimicrobial stewardship training programs to ensure high-quality advice is provided by AHSPs.…”

Mapping knowledge and comprehension of antimicrobial stewardship and biosecurity among veterinary students

“…In general, in this survey females were more represented than males. Moreover, the gender distribution of 67.6% of females (Table 1) in this study was similar to the one of veterinary students in Australia [75]. In addition, the gender distribution of surveyed veterinary students was similar at the University of Zagreb and the University of Novi Sad.…”

“…In Australia, one survey [39] has shown that more than 80% of veterinary students, while another study [74] has shown that more than 60% of them perceived that statement. Contrary, in Nigeria a very low percentage of veterinary students (13.1%) [75] and veterinarians (17.1%) [76] have heard about AMS, as well as only about 24% of pharmacy students in Saudi Arabia [77]. Having appropriate knowledge on AMS at the undergraduate level could insure AMS implementation in future work of veterinarians.…”

Knowledge, attitude, and perceptions towards the 2019 Coronavirus Pandemic: A bi-national survey in Africa

“…To summarize the obtained data, the demographic characteristics of respondents were subjected to descriptive statistics (frequency and proportions). To assess knowledge, attitude, and perception levels of respondents, a numeric scoring pattern was used, and outcome (dependent) variables-knowledge, attitude, and perception-were computed [19]. These outcome variables were further categorized as binary (satisfactory or unsatisfactory) based on cut-off (mean scores) marks ( Table 1).…”