The Effects of Health Education on the Awareness of Antimicrobial Resistance Among High School Students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia During 2023: A Quasi-experimental Study

Abstract

Introduction Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major health threat, recently declared a crisis by the WHO, and recognized as one of the top 10 threats to global health. One of the strategies to curb AMR is interventional education to raise awareness. Therefore, this study evaluated the impact of interventional education on awareness of antimicrobial resistance among high school students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods This was a quasi-experimental study that included 120 high school students as a control group and 120 students as the experimental group. It used a questionnaire pre- and post-educational intervention, which was a lecture by trained healthcare workers. Pearson’s Chi-square test and ANOVA were used to assess the effects of the intervention, and the p-value was set at <0.05 for significance. Results Over half (53.4%) of the controls reported no prior exposure to an antibiotic awareness campaign, compared to 46.6% in the intervention (experimental) group. Half of the participants in both groups were without a family relative who works in the healthcare sector. Almost half (51.2%) in the intervention group used antibiotics compared to 48.2% of controls; 53.3% in the control group reported self-medication compared to 46.7% in the intervention group. We found a statistically significant increase in the overall mean scores regarding knowledge of antibiotics resistance before and after the education intervention in the control group (p<0.001) and intervention group (p<0.001). Post-intervention, there was a significant reduction in the mean scores of misbeliefs about antibiotic use (p<0.001). We found an improvement in the perception scores toward AMR and antibiotic resistance post-educational intervention (P=0.008), and the perception difference remained significant between the two study groups (p=0.002). Conclusion These findings showed that interventional education effectively raises awareness, knowledge, and perceptions toward AMR. Therefore, public health, medical, and scientific professionals in Saudi Arabia are urged to emphasize education to fight AMR, in addition to other strategies.

Impact of a pharmacist-led educational intervention on knowledge, attitude, and practice toward the rational use of antibiotics among healthcare workers in a secondary care hospital in Punjab, Pakistan

“…In a study conducted at the National Liver Institute, Egypt, an educational program was offered to healthcare providers as an intervention to the ASP, and improvement in the knowledge, attitude, and practice of healthcare providers was observed as a result of the intervention ( Tahoon et al, 2020 ). Various other studies have also shown significant improvements in the rational utilization of antibiotics after the educational intervention, particularly led by pharmacists ( Monmaturapoj et al, 2021 ; Lai et al, 2022 ; Otieno et al, 2022 ; Xu et al, 2022 ; Almutairi et al, 2023 ; Lutfiyati et al, 2023 ). The ASP requires multidisciplinary healthcare workers to perform as a single unit, and education based on updated information is a requisite for informed decision making ( Laxminarayan et al, 2013 ; Cosgrove et al, 2014 ).…”