Active educational intervention as a tool to improve safe and appropriate use of antibiotics

Abstract

Misconception about antibiotics use among the public has been widely outlined to be a main reason for inappropriate use of antibiotics including failure to complete treatment, skipping of doses, re-use of leftover medicines and overuse of antibiotics. The study was devised to evaluate whether education might be a potential strategy to promote safer use of antibiotics and reducing self-medication. Two hundred seventy one adults were asked to complete two questionnaires; a pre and posteducation. The questionnaires comprised of three parts consisting of 17 statements assessing the knowledge on: appropriate use, safe use and resistance of antibiotics. Knowledge score was estimated by calculating the percentage of correct responses. The mean (SD) knowledge score pre-education was 59.4% (20.3). However, posteducation the score was 65.9% (17.9), < 0.001(-test). Knowledge scores were classified as poor, adequate and good. Posteducation, participants within poor and adequate knowledge categories were significantly shifted to the good category describing better knowledge, McNemar-2 = 28.7, = 3, < 0.001. It is concluded that using tailored education material targeting antibiotic need and use with a major aim of improving the public knowledge about antibiotics can be an effective and feasible strategy. This pilot study could be considered as the starting point for a wider scale public educational intervention study and national antibiotic campaign. However, the improvement in participant's knowledge might not reflect an actual change in antibiotics-seeking behaviour or future retention of knowledge. Future research should seek to assess the impact of education on participant's behaviour.

Public Health Campaigns and Medicine Use Awareness: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Previous studies [36] [37], support Shehadeh, Suaifan, and Hammad, (2015), in demonstrating the importance of an increase in public knowledge using educational interventions [27]. An educational campaign was designed by Shehadeh, Suaifan, and Hammad, (2015), which ran over a course of 3 months.…”

“…The sample size varied from 60 [30] to 3718 individuals [28]. One study had a general focus on medication adherence [23], while other studies focused on increasing awareness and knowledge of the public in regards to specific medications; chronic users of benzodiazepines [24], use of antibiotics [27] [28] and antiretroviral therapy (ART) [20].…”

“…The remaining studies used a sample of the general public for their campaign. Individuals were approached and asked to take part in the study, [27], or by assistance from a market research company which randomly selected individuals from the general population [28]. The remaining campaigns took place in various geographical places across a country using different platforms and locations, (i.e.…”

“…[27] study, involved a pharmacists conducting a 10 minute dialogue session with participants to complete a pre-campaign questionnaire, which was followed by a verbal education using cards that contained key information in regards to appropriate use of antibiotics. Another study Another study focused on creating advertising-style messages to attract and provoke patients with chronic kidney diseases to seek more information about their recommend medications.…”

“…Free mugs, and pens [20] Health statistically significant increase, in awareness of the public in regards to medication adherence [23], medication knowledge of the patients [30], improved knowledge of antibiotics in regards to missing doses, not completing a treatment, using leftover medications and excessive use of antibiotics, which can lead to increased resistance [27]. Individuals taking apart in educational games [21] and educational intervention [25] [26] were substantially more likely to seek advice from pharmacists [21] and significant increase in medication knowledge was observed [25] [26].…”