Patient Knowledge and Perception about Antibiotics in Community Pharmacy

Abstract

Priya Pritika Chand and Ranita Kumar

There is a global concern regarding the emergence of antibiotic resistance. This has warranted a behavior diagnostic study to determine what patients visiting the community pharmacy in Nausori, Fiji understand regarding antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. This was a cross-sectional survey which enrolled 200 consenting participants by convenience sampling strategy visiting the pharmacy with prescription for antibiotics from July to September 2021. A validated questionnaire was constructed for data collection. Data collected were analyzed to determine predictors of antibiotic knowledge at 5% level of significance. Findings showed that 70.5% respondents reported an average level of knowledge about antibiotics. 83.5% respondents had misconceptions that antibiotics would work on viral infections while 82% correctly identified misuse of antibiotics can result in antibiotic resistance. The age (p value 0.0005), educational level (p value– 0.000007), and whether or not the participants were studying or working in medical field (p value– 0.016) were found to be important predictors of antibiotic knowledge. The public surveyed had misunderstandings and lack of knowledge in some crucial aspects of prudent antibiotic use. Also, negative attitudes regarding rational use of antibiotics were evident. Educational interventions are required to promote rationale use of antibiotics among the public.

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