Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice on Antibiotics and Its Resistance: A Two-Phase Mixed-Methods Online Study among Pakistani Community Pharmacists to Promote Rational Antibiotic Use

Faiz Ullah Khan, Farman Ullah Khan, Khezar Hayat, Tawseef Ahmad, Amjad Khan, Jie Chang, Usman Rashid Malik, Zakir Khan, Krizzia Lambojon and Yu Fang
Additional contact information
Faiz Ullah Khan: Department of Pharmacy Administration and Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, China
Farman Ullah Khan: Department of Pharmacy Administration and Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, China
Khezar Hayat: Department of Pharmacy Administration and Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, China
Tawseef Ahmad: Department of Pharmacy, Abbottabad Campus, COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad 22060, Pakistan
Amjad Khan: Department of Pharmacy, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan
Jie Chang: Department of Pharmacy Administration and Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, China
Usman Rashid Malik: Department of Pharmacy Administration and Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, China
Zakir Khan: Department of Pharmacy, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan
Krizzia Lambojon: Department of Pharmacy Administration and Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, China
Yu Fang: Department of Pharmacy Administration and Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: Antibiotic resistance (ABR) is an emerging global threat to public health. Substantial evidence has indicated that community pharmacists (CPs) can play a critical role in managing the ever-increasing threat of antibiotic resistance. This study aimed to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practices of CPs ( n = 180) towards antibiotics and antibiotic resistance as well as to improve the rational use of antibiotics. A two-phase mixed-methods (quantitative and qualitative) online study was conducted in Pakistan from August 2019 to March 2020 by using validated questionnaires and semi-structured interview data. Different statistical methods were used to tabulate the quantitative data, whereas inductive thematic analysis was conducted to categorize themes from the qualitative data and to draw conclusions. Approximately 64.4% of the CPs were male (mean: 29–33 years old). Overall, CPs had good knowledge of and were familiar with multidrug-resistant organisms and their roles in ABR (65.6%, median = 1, and IQR = 1), although their knowledge was poor in differentiating some antibiotic groups with their respective ABR patterns (31.1%, median = 1, and IQR = 1). Most CPs have a positive attitude towards antibiotics, with most (90.0%) identifying ABR as a critical issue in public health (median = 1 and IQR = 0). Overall, CPs’ practices towards antibiotics were somewhat acceptable, where they leaned towards educating patients about the rational use of antibiotics (52.8%, median = 1, and IQR = 1). The two main themes discovered (antibiotics and counseling of patients) were related to self-medication, while educational intervention is the main subtheme. ABR is multifactorial, with subthemes related to budget, time constraints, incompetent staff, the absence of CPs, the lack of training, and the enforcement of laws and regulations being the needs of the hour in Pakistan. Effective antibiotic stewardship programs, patient education, and awareness campaigns about antibiotics and ABR along with training of the CPs are important factors that have to be addressed in a timely manner.

Keywords: antibiotics; antibiotic resistance; rational drug use; community pharmacist (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1320/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1320/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:3:p:1320-:d:491309

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().