Awareness of antibiotic usage and antimicrobial resistance among interns in a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Background: Antibiotic resistance is a global threat and new resistance mechanisms are emerging and spreading globally, threatening our ability to treat common infectious diseases. Reducing the incidence of drug resistant infections is crucial and is a top priority at global and national levels. A study was conducted among interns to assess the awareness related to antibiotic usage and resistance. Methods: The questionnaire was administered to a batch of 75 medical interns whereby their awareness regarding antibiotic use and resistance was assessed by a five point Likert scale, whose responses ranged from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree", and always to never. Some questions were of true and false type. The data was analysed by using simple descriptive statistics. Results: Out of the 78 interns, 75 participated in the study and completed the questionnaires. All the 75 (100%) interns believed that indiscriminate antibiotic use leads to antimicrobial resistance and 78.6% (n=59) believed that if antimicrobials are taken too often, they are less likely to work in the future. Majority (90.6%) of the interns knew of the fact that common cold and influenza are due to viral aetiology and not bacterial. Regarding the antibiotic practices of the interns, questionnaire addressed questions related to their practices related to use of antimicrobials, 66.6% (n=50) of the interns disagreed on the question that antibiotics are safe drugs, hence can be commonly used while 62.6% (n=47) do not believe that skipping one or two doses of the drug does not lead to antibiotic resistance. Conclusions:The antibiotic resistance crisis has been attributed to the overuse and misuse of these medications. Judicious use of antibiotics is the only solution for which awareness is required at the level of both health care providers and patients. Our study provides an important insight regarding the regarding awareness of antibiotic usage and antibiotic resistance among interns.