Abstract
Antibiotic resistance is a serious health crisis all over the world and students of biological sciences should have proper awareness to combat the problem. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) towards antibiotic use and resistance among university students of biological sciences in Pakistan. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted amongst 826 students of biological sciences programs from eight major Pakistani universities during September-November 2020. A self-administered online questionnaire was developed which consisted of four dimensions: sociodemographic characteristics (3 questions) and assessment of the knowledge, attitude and practices with 13, 6 and 11 questions, respectively. Association of KAP scores with sociodemographic characteristics was analyzed by nonparametric analysis i.e., Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis H test (p-value < 0.05). The sample comprised more females (82.9%) than males while most of the respondents belonged to 21-23 years and enrolled in the master’s degree. The overall knowledge score (correct answer) was 74.7% which was significantly associated with gender, age and degree. The positive attitude score (87.9%) was significantly higher in >23 years age group. Around 75% of the surveyed students had positive practices. The scores were observed significantly higher in females, 21-23 years age group and doctoral students. The study provides baseline evidence about the knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding antibiotic use and resistance among biology students. Overall, good positive attitude was depicted by participants however level of knowledge and positive practices was found lower and declared as moderate. Academic interventions such as lectures, courses, seminars and workshops on antibiotic use, along with establishing open-access antibiotic-resistance learning sites and use of mainstream and social media platforms, etc., are needed to improve the awareness and practices of university students of biological sciences with regards to the rational use of antibiotics.
Highlights
Antibiotics have been used as pivotal weapon in the prevention and cure of various pathogenic infections for the last few decades [1]
Online questionnaire was circulated among approximately 1300 university students enrolled in different programs of biological sciences
In comparison with this study, an investigation on antibiotic self-medication in non-medical university students of Pakistan showed that only 43% of students had an idea of antibiotic resistance and only 30% knew that misuse will eventually result in antibiotic resistance [34]
Summary
Antibiotics have been used as pivotal weapon in the prevention and cure of various pathogenic infections for the last few decades [1]. Antibiotic or antimicrobial resistance is caused when pathogens develop the ability to conquer the antibiotics being used to kill them This is one of the serious concerns for public health care across the globe, [3,4] usually caused by improper use of antibiotics [5] which could be influenced by self-medication or improper antibiotic consumption due to lack of knowledge, easy access, unavailability of any check on the antibiotics sale without prescription and lack of public awareness towards antibiotics use [6–. Appropriate means of intervention are required to control the improper use of antibiotics For this purpose, several approaches have been proposed such as a formulary replacement or restriction, education of health care providers, feedback activities, and strict requirement of drug prescription from a specialist physician or other disease specialist and enhanced antibiotic rational use [13, 14]
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