Pharmacy students’ knowledge and attitudes towards antibiotic use: A cross-sectional study.

Abstract

Antibiotics are the most common and most used drug group in the world. Misuse and overuse of antibiotics has led to the emergence of antibiotic resistance, infections that are difficult to treat and have a high mortality rate may occur, the length of hospital stay, and health expenses may increase, as well as drug side effects and interactions increases. In this context, rational use of antibiotics and informing public has a great importance for the world. In this study, we aimed to reveal insights about the knowledge and attitudes of future healthcare professionals, pharmacy students, towards antibiotic use. The mean age of the participants in this study was 21.65±2.37 and 78.7% of participants were female. The participants' total mean score from Antibiotic Use Scale was 36.05 ± 11.17 while the score of attitudes subdimension was 19.27 ± 7.54; subjective norm was 9.97 ± 3.14 and intention was 6.81 ± 3.47. In this study we evaluated the pharmacy students' knowledge and attitudes towards antibiotic use and identified factors that negatively affect rational antibiotic use. The findings of this study contribute to our understanding of the complex dynamics surrounding antibiotic use. This was a cross-sectional study conducted among pharmacy students. The data was collected with the help of Volunteer Data Form and Antibiotic Use Scale via google forms.