Abstract
ObjectivesThis study was designed to assess the awareness and knowledge of antibiotic usage and antibiotic resistance among the general public in the Cape Coast metropolis of Ghana. It also tries to decipher whether the level of education and the professional status of an individual has a positive association with the level of knowledge on antibiotic resistance.MethodsA population-base survey involving members of the public was conducted from August to November 2019. A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data from 632 respondents. Data were analyzed through SPSS v.21 using Chi square statistics and multivariate regression. Differences in knowledge were evaluated using ANOVA and the assumption of equal variance was tested with Levene statistics.ResultsThe response rate was 74.3%. Lower educational status group had a greater knowledge level (39.7%) on antibiotic resistance. Despite the high score, the lowest educational status group, (M = 1.82, SD = 0.769), middle educational status group (M = 1.98, SD = 0.748), and the high educational status group (M = 1.88, SD = 0.773) were not significantly different from each other with regard to their general knowledge level on antibiotic resistance (P < 0.05). The study revealed that, working in the healthcare sector is a major contributor to the level of knowledge on antibiotic resistance.ConclusionGiven the scale of the issue on antibiotic resistance and the fact that attempts to resolve it will involve efforts on the part of all, it is important that the public is aware of the importance of the issue of antibiotic resistance, its implications and what they can do to address it. The level of knowledge among respondents with lower educational status should be enough evidence to introduce more educational campaigns on antibiotic resistance.
Highlights
Antimicrobial resistance is a serious and ever increasing public health threat [1, 2]
The respondents were grouped based on their level of education with high educational status recording the highest proportion (359, 57%) followed by middle educational status (142, 22%) and low educational status (131, 21%) in that order
Using the analysis of variance (ANOVA), we found that variances among the various educational status were equal as we found a nonsignificant Levene statistic of 1.8999 (P = 0.151)
Summary
Antimicrobial resistance is a serious and ever increasing public health threat [1, 2]. Common medical routines and techniques in clinical medicine are becoming nearly impossible making the treatment of some common infections very difficult. This problem can be partly due to the high risk associated with antibiotic usage [5]. In one of the general meetings of the World Health Assembly in 2015, an action plan was drafted to help solve the increasing problem of antimicrobial resistance. One objective was to enhance public knowledge on antimicrobial resistance through effective communication, education and training. Other causes may include the use of antibiotics in the food production chain and within the animal production sector
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