Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Antibiotic Resistance among Medical Student at Al-Zaiem Al-Azhari University, December 2021 – July 2022

Abstract

Background: The issue of antibiotic resistance has become a global public health concern, with an extensive clinical and economic burden. In this context, health professionals play a key role in the fight against antibiotic resistance because they play a part in prescribing antibiotics during routine clinical practice. Objectives: to study assessing knowledge, attitude and practice of antibiotic resistance among medical students. Methods: An observational cross-sectional facility-based study was done during period from December 2021 to June 2022 on medical students of AAU. The sample size of the study was 285 By Stratified random sampling technique, according to their academic year then the sample selected randomly from each strata. The data was collected by using electronic structured questionnaire by Google form. Then after collected the data we analysis by SPSS version 25. Result: A total sample of 285 participants were collected. 93% of participants heard about antibiotic resistance. Regarding knowledge, and 91, 9% of participants defined antibiotic resistance as the ability of bacteria & other microorganisms to resist the effects of an antibiotic to which they were once sensitive and about spread of resistance, only 26.7% agree that antibiotic resistance bacteria can spread from animals to human. Regarding the attitude, 84.2% considered that antibiotic resistance is a problem and 89.5% stated that taking antibiotic correctly reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance. Regarding the practice, 51. 6% of students sometimes stop taking antibiotic course after improvement of symptoms and 56,1% get a prescription before starting antibiotics. Conclusion: This study showed that medical students had good knowledge concerning antibiotic resistance with exception about spread of antibiotic resistance, good attitude and moderate practice. So improvements in antibiotic usage and prescribing must be made in the medical curriculum for undergraduate students to reduce the emergence of antibiotic resistance.