Knowledge, attitude, and practice toward antibiotic usage among general practitioners: A cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT

Background: In the developing countries like India, infections are still very common. About 50% of the patients presenting to general practitioners had fever as the complaint pointing that infective ailments still predominate. Aims and Objectives: The use of antimicrobials is very common in practice that leads to the development of antimicrobial resistance. Materials and Methods: A total of 120 GP’s were registered for the present study. Assessment was done based on the special questionnaire prepared for assessing the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of the GP’s. Results: Data were collected from the Google Forms, which was then analyzed using Statistical software. No statistical difference between KAP of all pathies was observed. There is a statistically significant positive correlation between number of patients attended per day and antibiotics prescribed. This correlation is strong between allopathy practitioners whereas it’s moderate in homeopathy and Ayurveda practitioners. There is a statistically significant association between KAP. Conclusion: Self-medication and modification in the treatment by the patients; unnecessary and improper use by physicians and pharmacists themselves giving antimicrobials without prescription are some of the common problems in irrational use of antimicrobials. From this study, we can conclude that KAP of GP’s has an association with usage of antibiotics and thus programs for promoting and improving KAP’s can be useful in managing the irrational use of antibiotics.