Abstract
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), antibacterial resistance is a serious problem worldwide. In Spain, knowledge about the use of antibiotics is scarce, being the third country with the highest consumption of antibiotics in the world and the first in Europe. This problem is due, partly, to the abusive use of these drugs in human medicine, livestock, and agriculture. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact that the Tiny Earth project has had on the antibiotic knowledge in pre-university students. To do this, a survey was conducted before and after the Tiny Earth project in three different school years (2017–2020) to 322 pre-university students belonging to seven schools in the province of Valencia. The survey consisted of 12 multiple-choice questions with a single valid answer. We observed 67.6% success at the beginning and 81.2% at the end. These data indicate that they correctly answered an average of 1.64 more questions after completing the project. In view of the results, we can affirm that the Tiny Earth project has contributed to an improvement in scientific knowledge and awareness of the correct use of antibiotics and the emergence of resistances by pre-university students, which could also be transmitted to their social environment, thus improving awareness global on these issues.
Highlights
Antibacterial resistance has become a serious health problem worldwide (Prigitano et al, 2018) and is spreading faster in comparison to the development of new molecules
The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact that the Tiny Earth project has had on the knowledge about antibiotics of the participating pre-university students
To question 8, “What do you understand by antibiotic resistance?,” 66.1% was correctly answered at the beginning and 80.5% at the end of the practical sessions (Figure 8)
Summary
Antibacterial resistance has become a serious health problem worldwide (Prigitano et al, 2018) and is spreading faster in comparison to the development of new molecules. In Spain, knowledge about the use of antibiotics is scarce, being the third country with the highest consumption of antibiotics in the world and the first one in Europe (Klein et al, 2018) This problem is due, in part, to the misuse of these drugs in human medicine, livestock, and agriculture (Phillips et al, 2004). This problem is even more serious if we bear in mind that three quarters of the antimicrobial agents used in livestock overlap with antimicrobials used in humans (O’Neill, 2015) This has led to the so-called “antibiotic crisis,” result of the shared irresponsibility of health professionals, politicians, and consumers of antibiotics themselves, though in very different degrees of responsibility (Cisneros Herreros and Peñalva Moreno, 2018)
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