The impact of physicians’ knowledge on outpatient antibiotic use

Abstract

We designed this study to explore how factors, especially knowledge, influence the use and prescriptions of antibiotics among physicians in China's county hospitals. A questionnaire was designed to evaluate the knowledge levels of physicians. The rates of antibiotic prescriptions were collected through on-the-spot investigations. The percentage of encounters with antibiotics prescribed and the percentage of encounters with antibiotics combination prescribed were used to measure antibiotics use. Univariate analysis and the generalized linear model were applied to analyze the knowledge levels among physicians as well as their antibiotic prescriptions. A total of 334 physicians in 60 county hospitals filled out the questionnaires, and 385,529 prescriptions were collected. The mean score of the questionnaire was a pass (62.8). The physicians in the eastern region of China demonstrated higher levels of knowledge than other regions (P = .08). Physicians with a higher score prescribed less antibiotics (P < .01) and less antibiotics combination (P = .07). The knowledge gap of Chinese physicians is evident and those with a higher degree of knowledge always prescribe fewer antibiotics. Targeted training and courses to educate physicians about the risks of over-prescription of antibiotics should be conducted to improve the practice of antibiotic prescriptions.

Drug-Related Problems Identified During Pharmacy Intervention and Consultation: Implementation of an Intensive Care Unit Pharmaceutical Care Model

“…In practice, clinical pharmacists can fill the gap by working as an integral member in the MDT and offering optimal antimicrobial therapies according to infection sites, pathogens, pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) parameters of antibiotics, and patients' renal or liver function (Zhou et al, 2016;Wang et al, 2019). In addition to consulting pharmacists on antibiotic selection and dosing, it may also be important to set up more targeted courses to equip ICU physicians with essential knowledge on antibiotic use (Guan et al, 2019;Wushouer et al, 2020).…”

Drug-related problems identified during pharmacy intervention and consultation: Implementation of an intensive care unit pharmaceutical care model

“…In practice, clinical pharmacists could fill the gap by working as an integral member in the MDT and offering optimal antimicrobial therapies according to infection sites, pathogens, pharmacokinetics/ pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) parameters of antibiotics, and patients' renal or liver function [37,38]. In addition to consulting pharmacists on antibiotic selection and dosing, it may also be important to set up more targeted courses to equip ICU physicians with essential knowledge on antibiotic use [39,40].…”

Prescribers’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviors on Antibiotics, Antibiotic Use and Antibiotic Resistance in Jordan

“…A study conducted by Wushouer and colleagues in China reported that the higher the knowledge of the practitioners, the lower the rate of antibiotic prescribing [26]. This was also reported in a German study that assessed the effect of knowledge about antibiotic resistance on the prescribing pattern among practitioners; awareness about antimicrobial resistance highly influenced the practitioners' pattern in prescribing antibiotics to their patients, and this was confirmed in additional studies in Iran and Croatia [27][28][29].…”