Abstract
Background: Unnecessary antimicrobial use is an emerging problem throughout the world. To design future interventions to ensure rational antimicrobial use and decrease the risk of antimicrobial resistance, physician's knowledge and prescribing practices of antimicrobials should be assessed. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to investigate the physician's knowledge along with their prescribing patterns of antimicrobials in their health care system.Methods: The present qualitative study was conducted in a tertiary care public hospital located at Penang island, situated in Northwest of Malaysia. A total of 12 semi-structured, face to face interviews were conducted with purposive sampling technique. Physicians recruited had different specialties. All interviews were audio recorded, then transcribed into English language and analyze by thematic content analysis.Results: Four major themes were identified: (1) prescribing patterns of physicians regarding antimicrobials; (2) physician's knowledge about antimicrobials; (3) antimicrobial resistance; (4) satisfaction with management of infections. Physicians believed in regular educational activities and updates about the latest antimicrobial guidelines may change the prescribing behavior of physicians to optimize the use of antimicrobials. This may lead to decrease in burden of antimicrobial resistance in their health care system. Physicians emphasized that stricter rules and regular monitoring of antimicrobial use should be implemented to overcome the main challenges of antimicrobial resistance.Conclusion: Different factors were identified to assist optimized use of antimicrobials and decrease the risk of antimicrobial resistance. The present study helps to design targeted future interventions to ensure rational antimicrobial use and decrease the impact of antimicrobial resistance in Malaysia.
Highlights
Antimicrobials have reduced the death rate due to infectious diseases for the past 70 years when they were first introduced
Appropriate use of antimicrobials solely depends on the knowledge of physicians toward the antimicrobial usage guidelines which vary from country to country [3, 8]
Following are the four major themes including sub-themes emerged from the analysis of transcribed interviews: 1. Prescribing patterns of physicians regarding antimicrobials; 2
Summary
Antimicrobials have reduced the death rate due to infectious diseases for the past 70 years when they were first introduced. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an emerging problem throughout the world that cause increased mortality, morbidity, and cost of the treatment [2]. To increase the rational use of antimicrobials, the prescribing pattern of physicians should be changed [3]. Previous studies reported that physicians agreed on the excessive use of antimicrobials all over the world but denied this issue in their own health care settings [6, 7]. Adherence to antimicrobial guidelines by the physicians should be monitored to evaluate their prescribing behavior is the best way to increase the rational use of antimicrobials and reduce the risk of AMR [9]. To design future interventions to ensure rational antimicrobial use and decrease the risk of antimicrobial resistance, physician’s knowledge and prescribing practices of antimicrobials should be assessed. The main objective of this study is to investigate the physician’s knowledge along with their prescribing patterns of antimicrobials in their health care system
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