Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a profound threat to human and animal health. Antimicrobial prescribing behaviours are influenced by psychological factors such as knowledge, beliefs, and emotions. As future antimicrobial prescribers, it is important to understand beliefs about AMR and stewardship among veterinary (vet) students. This cross-sectional online survey assessed vet students’ self-reported behavior, knowledge, and beliefs in specific relation to antibiotic resistance (ABR) and antibiotic usage. Participants were early years (first- and second-year; n = 460) and later-years (third- and fourth-year; n = 113) undergraduate vet students from three UK universities. Self-reported antibiotic-related behaviors were responsible among most students. Knowledge about ABR and stewardship was moderate among early years students and good among later years students. Vet students typically believed that vets had less responsibility for both causing and preventing ABR than other groups (animal owners, human medics, and the public). This study offers evidence that vet students (along with other groups) tend to lay greater responsibility for ABR/AMR outside of their own profession, which may impact their future prescribing behaviors. It is vital that AMR and antimicrobial stewardship are embedded across veterinary curricula, and that the One Health nature of the challenge posed by AMR is emphasized to encourage shared responsibility across all stakeholder groups, thereby helping to reduce ‘other-blaming’ for AMR.
Highlights
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global, One Health problem, which poses a profound threat to human and animal health [1,2,3]
The survey link was accessed by 593 participants from three UK universities; 16 participants did not progress beyond the information sheet and consent form, and two participants completed demographic information only
Self-reported antibiotic usage behaviors were judged to be responsible in most early years students across all three universities (Bristol, Liverpool, Surrey), and in most later years students at Surrey, with no statistically significant differences observed in selfreported behavior between the early and later years students at Surrey
Summary
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global, One Health problem, which poses a profound threat to human and animal health [1,2,3]. A growing body of evidence shows that prescribers, in both human and animal medicine, are influenced by a range of psychological, social, and environmental factors [9,10]. Such factors include emotions [11,12,13], habit [14,15], the actions of colleagues [12,16], poor infection prevention and control (IPC) or biosecurity measures [17,18,19], and local and national policies [20,21,22,23]. Human medics (e.g., doctors, nurse prescribers, pharmacists) engage in this psychological distancing and other-blaming for the problem of AMR; they too believe greater stewardship is needed by other groups outside of their own profession and blame others for exerting pressure on them to prescribe [33,34,35,36]
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