Portuguese Community Pharmacists' Attitudes to and Knowledge of Antibiotic Misuse: Questionnaire Development and Reliability

Abstract

ObjectiveTo develop and evaluate the reliability of a self-administered questionnaire designed to assess the attitudes and knowledge of community pharmacists in Portugal about microbial resistance and the antibiotic dispensing process.MethodsThis study was divided into the following three stages: (1) design of the questionnaire, which included a literature review and a qualitative study with focus-group sessions; (2) assessment of face and content validity, using a panel of experts and a pre-test of community pharmacists; and, (3) pilot study and reliability analysis, which included a test-retest study covering fifty practising pharmacists based at community pharmacies in five districts situated in Northern Portugal. Questionnaire reproducibility was quantified using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC; 95% confidence interval) computed by means of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Internal consistency was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha.ResultsThe correlation coefficients were fair to good (ICC>0.4) for all statements (scale-items) regarding knowledge of and attitudes to antibiotic resistance, and ranged from fair to good to excellent for statements about situations in which pharmacists acknowledged that antibiotics were sometimes dispensed without a medical prescription (ICC>0.8). Cronbach's alpha for this section was 0.716.ConclusionsThe questionnaire designed in this study is valid and reliable in terms of content validity, face validity and reproducibility.

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices on Antibiotic Resistance Among Pharmacists at the University Teaching Hospitals in Lusaka, Zambia

“…A p<0.001 gave statistical significance. These results are similar to the results reported by other researchers 13,16,23,28,29,30 . Inappropriate use of antibiotics is well known to be one of the leading factors that cause antibiotic resistance 1,19 .…”

“…Therefore, our study indicated that pharmacists working at the University Teaching Hospital have adequate knowledge, positive attitude, and good practices towards antibiotic resistance. These findings are in tandem with other results found in other studies 22,27,28,29 . Additionally, to fight AMR, pharmacists need to have adequate knowledge, positive attitudes, and good practices towards antibiotic use resistance.…”

“…A p<0.001 gave statistical significance. Many other studies have shown that misuse of antibiotics may lead to antibiotic resistance 11,13,16,26,29 . The entire world needs to avoid misuse of antibiotics if this global public health challenge of antibiotic resistance has to be eliminated.…”

“…This is because lower doses of antibiotics cannot kill the bacteria. Studies have shown that prescribing antibiotics empirically to treat viral infections may lead to antibiotic resistance 22,29 . These findings are in tandem with the findings of our study in which the majority of pharmacists (41%) agreed.…”

Are pharmacists’ good knowledge and awareness on antibiotics taken for granted? The situation in Albania and future implications across countries

“…We are aware that published studies have assessed community pharmacists' attitudes towards antibiotic dispensing, microbial resistance and their misuse, knowledge and attitudes towards URTIs as well as dispensing antibiotics without a prescription (3,9,(26)(27)(28). However, we believe this is one of the first studies to comprehensively test pharmacists' knowledge regarding all aspects of antibiotic use across key domains, particularly important in countries with high rates of self-purchasing.…”