A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study of knowledge, attitude and practice of antibiotic usage among the undergraduate students of a tertiary care teaching rural hospital: with an emphasis of WHO fact-sheets

ABSTRACT

Background: Awareness regarding the antibiotic usage forms vital way to overcome the quickly deepening problem of antibiotic resistance. Hence, all the medical students should be made aware of the current emerging health related issues as future clinicians. It is in this regards that this study was undertaken among undergraduate (UG) students, in order to assess their knowledge, attitude & practice concerning antibiotic use.Methods: The present observational study was conducted over a period of four months starting from May 2018 till August 2018 among undergraduates. A total of 250 structured questionnaires were distributed. Data collected was further entered in Microsoft excel sheet and further analysed.Results: Total 250 students participated in this present study. Out of them, nearly 75.6% had heard about antibiotic resistance while 24.4% denied. Regarding the improper use of antibiotics that can cause antibiotic resistance 70% was aware. Moreover, nearly 40.4% attended a CME about rational use of antibiotics. The belief that the antibiotics are safe drugs hence they can be commonly used was reported by 48%. The results were grouped into knowledge, attitude and practice regarding the antibiotic use.Conclusions: Thus, the result gives us useful insight regarding KAP of the undergraduate students who will be future prescribers of antibiotics. This can be further applied to plan desirable educational informative interventions that focus on improving the knowledge for prescribing antibiotics in future clinicians, which can further help in reducing the development of antibiotic resistance.