Assessing the Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviors of Human and Animal Health Students towards Antibiotic Use and Resistance: A Pilot Cross-Sectional Study in the UK

Abstract

The Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance highlights the importance of training all healthcare professionals. No study has assessed patterns of students’ knowledge, attitudes and practices concerning antibiotic use simultaneously across different healthcare course types. We conducted a cross-sectional multi-center survey among UK students. The survey was advertised through local survey coordinators at 25 universities. The online survey was accessible from 10th October to 17th November 2016 (before European Antibiotic Awareness Day). A total of 255 students from 25 universities participated, including students on medicine, pharmacy, nursing, physician associate, dentistry and veterinary medicine courses. Antibiotic resistance was considered to be a more important global challenge than climate change, obesity or food security (p < 0.001). Most students (95%) believed that antibiotic resistance will be a problem for their future practice, but fewer (69%) thought that the antibiotics they will prescribe, administer or dispense will contribute to the problem. A fifth of students felt they had sufficient knowledge of antibiotic use for their future work. Our exploratory study suggests that UK human and animal healthcare students are aware of the importance of antibiotic resistance, but many still have certain misconceptions. Campaigns and improved educational efforts applying behavioral insights methodology could address these.

Veterinary Medical Students’ Perceptions, Attitude and Knowledge about Antibiotic Resistance and Stewardship: How Prepared Are Our Future Prescribers?

“…Given the importance of veterinarians as key partners in ABS efforts, VMS should therefore be knowledgeable about ABR and ABS (Brink et al, 2017). In this study, 3 major findings which are similar with those of multicentre studies (Minen et al, 2010;Abbo et al, 2013;Dyar et al, 2014;Justo et al, 2014;Burger et al, 2016;Ferdoush et al, 2016;Yang et al, 2016;Wasserman et al, 2017) conducted among medical/pharmacy students in developed and developing countries were made: (i) low level of knowledge about ABR and ABS, (ii) perceived lack of preparedness to practice ABS and lead in ASPs, and (iii) desire for more education about ABR and ABS.…”

“…A relatively high response rate (53.4%) compared with previous multicentre surveys in medical/pharmacy settings (51% (Wasserman et al, 2017), 61% (Abbo et al, 2013), 26.6% (Burger et al, 2016), 30% (Minen et al, 2010), 35% (Dyar et al, 2014), 40% (Justo et al, 2014), 82% (Ferdoush et al, 2016)) was obtained and the survey was anonymous and voluntary; this likely reduced the tendency of the students to produce "socially desirable" response (Abbo et al, 2013;Thriemer et al, 2013;Burger et al, 2016). The study was conducted in the final-year of veterinary undergraduate study when students have almost completed their formal academic curriculum, thus providing a good estimate of their education about ABR and ABS upon graduation (Abbo et al, 2013;Burger et al, 2016).…”

“…Several studies have assessed medical/allied healthcare profession students' perceptions and knowledge about AB, ABR and/or ABS and their perceptions about how prepared they are to practice ABS (Minen et al, 2010;Pulcini et al, 2011;Abbo et al, 2013;Afzal Khan et al, 2013;Justo et al, 2013, Thriemer et al, 2013Dyar et al, 2014;Harakeh et al, 2015;Tarao et al, 2015;Burger et al, 2016;Ferdoush et al, 2016;Haque et al, 2016;Hoque et al, 2016;Padmanabha et al, 2016;Yang et al, 2016;Weier et al, 2017;Dyar et al, 2018;Wasserman et al, 2017). These studies reported significant differences among the students in terms of perceptions and knowledge about ABS and ABR.…”

“…Therefore, veterinarians are expected to be in the frontline of the fight against ABR (Castro-Sanchez et al, 2016;Brink, et al, 2017;Moran, 2017;Dyar et al, 2018). Optimization of AM prescribing is the best way to checkmate escalating ABR worldwide and to preserve AB for future generations (Broom et al, 2016;Moran, 2017).…”

“…Studies evaluating veterinary medical students' perceptions and knowledge about ABR and ABS and their preparedness to practice ABS, are rare in the literature. The only study which assessed veterinary students' perception and knowledge about ABR and ABS is that of Dyar et al (2018) in the United Kingdom (UK). There have been calls (Wesse et al, 2015;Brink et al, 2017;Dyar et al, 2018) for studies evaluating veterinary students' perceptions and knowledge about ABR and ABS.…”