Public Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding the Use of Antibiotics and Resistance: Findings from a Cross‐Sectional Study Among Palestinian Adults

Abstract

Antibiotics are considered to be among the most commonly sold drug classes in Palestine. Resistance to antibiotics has increased for reasons relating to the use and misuse of antibiotics. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, and attitudes regarding antibiotic use and awareness about resistance among adults visiting the emergency departments at hospitals in North Palestine. A self-administered cross-sectional questionnaire survey involving participants aged 18 or over was conducted from June 2012 to February 2013. Adults who visited the emergency departments at hospitals in North Palestine were included. Demographic characteristics, knowledge and attitudes towards antibiotic use were included in the questionnaire. Poor and good knowledge were defined as a total knowledge score of 0-7 and 8-15 of 15 questions, respectively. Attitude scores of 0-3 and 4-7 of 7 questions were considered poor and good, respectively. A total of 375 questionnaires were included in the study. A response rate of 83.3% was attained. About 55.0% of the participants had a good knowledge and 56.5% had a good attitude towards rational antibiotic use. A significant positive correlation was shown between participants' knowledge scores and participants' attitude scores towards antibiotic use (R = 0.344, P = 0.001. Participants with a high family income were more likely to be aware of appropriate antibiotic use than participants with a low family income (P-value <0.001). Participants with a higher educational level (university) had a good attitude towards rational antibiotic use than those with a lower education level (P-value <0.001). This study has documented important knowledge and attitude gaps in antibiotic use. These findings will help health policymakers in Palestine to implement intervention programmes to rationalize antibiotic use. Continuing medical education, professional development and training workshops for healthcare professionals regarding rational use of antibiotics and health risks associated with the spread of antibiotic resistance are needed. In addition, minimizing non-prescription use of antibiotics and increasing the public awareness about the health and economic hazards of antibiotic resistance are also required.

Knowledge, attitudes and practices relating to antibiotic use among community members of the Rupandehi District in Nepal

“…The only sociodemographic factor found to be associated with each of knowledge, attitudes and practices relating to antibiotics use was education. Respondents with higher education had better knowledge and more appropriate attitudes and practices, a finding consistent with other studies [5, 7, 13, 55, 57–60]. Our findings also suggest respondents in urban areas had better knowledge on antibiotic use than those in rural areas, a similar observation to that found in a Lithuanian study [61] but contrasting with a Polish study that found no such difference [62].…”

“…Although respondents were aware that antibiotic resistance was a problem, half (50.9%) were still unsure whether “ skipping one or two doses does not contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance ”. This finding is consistent with a Palestinian study that found one-third of respondents knew the meaning of antibiotic resistance, however nearly one-third of them incorrectly agreed that antibiotics’ effectiveness would not be affected if antibiotics are taken less or more than the prescribed dose [57].…”

Fighting antibiotic resistance: a narrative review of public knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of antibiotics use

“…11 impressively, 94% of respondents from Sweden, Tanzania, the United arab emirates, and Palestine appeared to have a good knowledge of aBR and even the resistance development (⩾90%) noting that, the more antibiotics are used in the society, the higher the risk of developing and spreading resistance. 21,22 Participants, according to Hawking et al, 30 however, displayed their basic knowledge, after being prompted, to help create awareness. while some respondents disagreed that aBR was a serious problem in our society, whether locally or globally, 18 students who demonstrated more knowledge of the subject insisted on the fact that the current level of awareness was highly inadequate.…”

Diversion, Misuse and Abuse of Prescription Drugs in Upper-Middle-Income Countries: Narrative Literature Review

“…Patient referral to drug treatment centres was a challenge (Foley et al, 2018;Parry et al, 2017). On the other hand, consumers with low level of education (Farha et al, 2016;Haddad & Ebada, 2017;Yong-Kang, 2018), lack of appropriate knowledge about medication use (Abu Taha et al, 2016;Tara Carney et al, 2016;Jaber et al, 2015;Peng et al, 2018;X. Wang et al, 2017;Yaylaci et al, 2017), lack of awareness regarding potential risks (Tara Carney et al, 2016;Farha et al, 2016;Jaber et al, 2015;Yong-Kang, 2018), poor attitude toward medication usage (Abu Taha et al, 2016;Gu et al, 2015;Jaber et al, 2015) were disproportionally burdened by diversion and misuse.…”

“…On the other hand, consumers with low level of education (Farha et al, 2016;Haddad & Ebada, 2017;Yong-Kang, 2018), lack of appropriate knowledge about medication use (Abu Taha et al, 2016;Tara Carney et al, 2016;Jaber et al, 2015;Peng et al, 2018;X. Wang et al, 2017;Yaylaci et al, 2017), lack of awareness regarding potential risks (Tara Carney et al, 2016;Farha et al, 2016;Jaber et al, 2015;Yong-Kang, 2018), poor attitude toward medication usage (Abu Taha et al, 2016;Gu et al, 2015;Jaber et al, 2015) were disproportionally burdened by diversion and misuse. Meanwhile consumers with early life experiences (Van Hout, Norman, et al, 2017), mental health problems (Guo et al, 2017), recreational use purpose (Foley et al, 2018;Wells et al, 2018) and biopsychosocial purposes of use were more affected.…”