Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding antibiotic use and resistance among health science and non-health science university students in Thailand

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) have been recognized as one of the global health issues affecting humans, animals, and the environment. A lack of knowledge, negative attitudes, and irrational drug use can make significant contributions to the spread of ARB. This study aimed to assess the knowled...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS ONE
Main Author: Precha N.; Sukmai S.; Hengbaru M.; Chekoh M.; Laohaprapanon S.; Makkaew P.; Dom N.C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science 2024
Online Access:https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85181626425&doi=10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0296822&partnerID=40&md5=867c64f34944b39d255a15123c8306f2
id 2-s2.0-85181626425
spelling 2-s2.0-85181626425
Precha N.; Sukmai S.; Hengbaru M.; Chekoh M.; Laohaprapanon S.; Makkaew P.; Dom N.C.
Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding antibiotic use and resistance among health science and non-health science university students in Thailand
2024
PLoS ONE
19
1-Jan
10.1371/journal.pone.0296822
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85181626425&doi=10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0296822&partnerID=40&md5=867c64f34944b39d255a15123c8306f2
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) have been recognized as one of the global health issues affecting humans, animals, and the environment. A lack of knowledge, negative attitudes, and irrational drug use can make significant contributions to the spread of ARB. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding antibiotic use and resistance among health science (HS) and non-health science (NHS) students and to determine the factors that influence their KAP concerning antibiotic use and resistance. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 404 HS and NHS students in Southern Thailand from December 2021 to March 2022. The students who fulfilled the study inclusion criteria responded to a questionnaire that had five dimensions. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the qualitative variables, and Fisher’s exact test was applied to compare the demographic variables, KAP responses between the HS and NHS students. The KAP regarding antibiotic use and resistance for each variable were compared using the Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis H test. Spearman’s correlation test was used to estimate the correlation between the variables and KAP. A total of 404 (HS,162; NHS,242) students completed the self-administered questionnaire. The students’ highest score was for attitude, followed by practice and knowledge. Our findings revealed that the HS students had higher levels of KAP correlated with antibiotic use and resistance than the NHS students (P < 0.001). The higher KAP scores were among the more senior students, which indicates that instruction on antibiotics was effective in their curriculum. Antibiotic use and resistance knowledge and attitudes should be conveyed to all university students via academic curriculum. Such interventions could set the standard for rational antibiotic use as well as long-term prevention and control of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. © 2024 Precha et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Public Library of Science
19326203
English
Article
All Open Access; Gold Open Access
author Precha N.; Sukmai S.; Hengbaru M.; Chekoh M.; Laohaprapanon S.; Makkaew P.; Dom N.C.
spellingShingle Precha N.; Sukmai S.; Hengbaru M.; Chekoh M.; Laohaprapanon S.; Makkaew P.; Dom N.C.
Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding antibiotic use and resistance among health science and non-health science university students in Thailand
author_facet Precha N.; Sukmai S.; Hengbaru M.; Chekoh M.; Laohaprapanon S.; Makkaew P.; Dom N.C.
author_sort Precha N.; Sukmai S.; Hengbaru M.; Chekoh M.; Laohaprapanon S.; Makkaew P.; Dom N.C.
title Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding antibiotic use and resistance among health science and non-health science university students in Thailand
title_short Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding antibiotic use and resistance among health science and non-health science university students in Thailand
title_full Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding antibiotic use and resistance among health science and non-health science university students in Thailand
title_fullStr Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding antibiotic use and resistance among health science and non-health science university students in Thailand
title_full_unstemmed Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding antibiotic use and resistance among health science and non-health science university students in Thailand
title_sort Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding antibiotic use and resistance among health science and non-health science university students in Thailand
publishDate 2024
container_title PLoS ONE
container_volume 19
container_issue 1-Jan
doi_str_mv 10.1371/journal.pone.0296822
url https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85181626425&doi=10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0296822&partnerID=40&md5=867c64f34944b39d255a15123c8306f2
description Antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) have been recognized as one of the global health issues affecting humans, animals, and the environment. A lack of knowledge, negative attitudes, and irrational drug use can make significant contributions to the spread of ARB. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding antibiotic use and resistance among health science (HS) and non-health science (NHS) students and to determine the factors that influence their KAP concerning antibiotic use and resistance. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 404 HS and NHS students in Southern Thailand from December 2021 to March 2022. The students who fulfilled the study inclusion criteria responded to a questionnaire that had five dimensions. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the qualitative variables, and Fisher’s exact test was applied to compare the demographic variables, KAP responses between the HS and NHS students. The KAP regarding antibiotic use and resistance for each variable were compared using the Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis H test. Spearman’s correlation test was used to estimate the correlation between the variables and KAP. A total of 404 (HS,162; NHS,242) students completed the self-administered questionnaire. The students’ highest score was for attitude, followed by practice and knowledge. Our findings revealed that the HS students had higher levels of KAP correlated with antibiotic use and resistance than the NHS students (P < 0.001). The higher KAP scores were among the more senior students, which indicates that instruction on antibiotics was effective in their curriculum. Antibiotic use and resistance knowledge and attitudes should be conveyed to all university students via academic curriculum. Such interventions could set the standard for rational antibiotic use as well as long-term prevention and control of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. © 2024 Precha et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
publisher Public Library of Science
issn 19326203
language English
format Article
accesstype All Open Access; Gold Open Access
record_format scopus
collection Scopus
_version_ 1809678155420532736