Knowledge and Understanding on Rational Use of Antibiotics among Health Sciences Students in the Final Year at a University

Abstract

Objective: To assess knowledge and understanding on rational antibiotic use among the final-year students in health sciences of a University. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted by employing the measure of knowledge and understanding on rational antibiotic use developed in this study to assess all students in the final-year of School of Medicine, School of Pharmacy, School of Nursing and School of Public Health. Results: 195 students completing the questionnaire (accounted for 75.29% of all final-year students in four schools) consisted of 24 (12.30%) from School of Medicine, 48 (24.61%) from School of Pharmacy, 78 (40.00%) from School of Nursing, and 45 (23.09%) from School of Public Health, respectively. Statistically significant differences in knowledge and understanding on rational antibiotic were found among four schools (P<0.01). The average score of medical students was not different from that of pharmacy students (12.7±1.1 and 13.4±1.8, respectively, P=0.075). However, nursing students and public health students had significantly lower scores than those of students from two former schools (10.4±1.9 and 9.0±2.3, respectively, P<0.01). The items with least proportion of students with correct answer were those on using antibiotics for dog-bite wound and using antibiotics for prevention of infection in children. Conclusion: Knowledge scores of rational antibiotic use of final-year medical and pharmacy students were over or equal to 80%, but those of nursing and public health students were 70% and 60%, respectively. However, some knowledge should be improved including treatment of dog-bite wound and infection prevention in children.