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. 2021 Jan 12;10(1):66.
doi: 10.3390/antibiotics10010066.

Understanding of Pharmacy Students towards Antibiotic Use, Antibiotic Resistance and Antibiotic Stewardship Programs: A Cross-Sectional Study from Punjab, Pakistan

Khezar Hayat  1   2   3   4 , Shazia Jamshed  5   6 , Meagen Rosenthal  7 , Noman Ul Haq  8 , Jie Chang  1   2   3 , Muhammad Fawad Rasool  9 , Usman Rashid Malik  1   2   3 , Anees Ur Rehman  9 , Kashif Maqbool Khan  4 , Yu Fang  1   2   3
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Understanding of Pharmacy Students towards Antibiotic Use, Antibiotic Resistance and Antibiotic Stewardship Programs: A Cross-Sectional Study from Punjab, Pakistan

Khezar Hayat et al. Antibiotics (Basel). .

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance (ABR) is a significant issue for public health globally. An adequate understanding of ABR and the approaches used to tackle ABR, including antibiotic stewardship programs, are vital. This study aimed to get an insight into antibiotic use, ABR, and antibiotic stewardship programs among pharmacy students of Punjab, Pakistan. This multicenter study was undertaken among final (fifth) year undergraduate pharmacy students of 7 universities of Punjab, Pakistan. A paper-based self-administered questionnaire comprising 48-items was utilized for data collection. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for data analysis. This study included a total of 296 respondents with a response rate of 85.8%. Most of the students had an average understanding of antibiotic use (59.8%), ABR (42.6%), ABR mechanisms (48.0%), and factors of ABR (51.7%). Only 21.6% of students have heard about antibiotic stewardship programs. More than half of the students believed that educating and training healthcare professionals (53.4%) and medical students (57.8%) about the prescribing and judicial usage of antibiotics could reduce the ABR burden. The awareness of most of the pharmacy students about certain aspects of antibiotic use, ABR, and stewardship programs was suboptimal.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance; antibiotic use; knowledge; pharmacy students; stewardship programs.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Understanding of respondents towards various aspects of antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Awareness of students about antibiotic resistance and stewardship.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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