Perceptions, views and practices regarding antibiotic prescribing and stewardship among hospital physicians in Jakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

Objectives: Antibiotic overuse is one of the main drivers of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), especially in low and middle-income countries. This study aimed to gain an understanding of perceptions, views, and practices regarding AMR, antibiotic prescribing, and stewardship (AMS) among hospital physicians in Jakarta, Indonesia. Design: cross-sectional, self-administered questionnaire-based survey, with descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to identify distinct underlying constructs in the dataset, and multivariable linear regression of factor scores to analyse physician subgroups. Setting: Six public and private general hospitals in Jakarta in 2019. Participants: 1007 of 1896 (53.1% response rate) antibiotic prescribing physicians. Results: EFA identified six latent factors (overall Crohnbach alpha=0.85): awareness of AMS activities; awareness of AMS purpose; views regarding rational antibiotic prescribing; confidence in antibiotic prescribing decisions; perception of AMR as a significant problem; and immediate actions to contain AMR. Physicians acknowledged the significance of AMR and contributing factors, rational antibiotic prescribing, and purpose and usefulness of AMS. However, this conflicted with reported suboptimal local hospital practices, such as room cleaning, hand hygiene and staff education, and views regarding antibiotic decision-making. These included insufficiently applying AMS principles and utilising microbiology, lack of confidence in prescribing decisions, and defensive prescribing due to pervasive diagnostic uncertainty, fear of patient deterioration or because patients insisted. Physicians factor scores differed across hospitals, departments, work experience and medical hierarchy. Conclusions: AMS implementation in Indonesian hospitals is challenged by institutional, contextual and diagnostic vulnerabilities, resulting in externalising AMR instead of recognising it as a local problem. Appropriate recognition of the contextual determinants of antibiotic prescribing decision-making will be critical to change physicians attitudes and develop context-specific AMS interventions