Abstract

EVALUATION OF PRACTICE, ATTITUDE AND KNOWLEDGE ABOUT IRRATIONAL USE OF ANTIBIOTICS FOR COMMON COLD INFECTION IN SUDAN

*Zeinab Alghali Alsayed Mohammed and Afaf Ali Abdelrahim

.

Abstract

Background: As majority of upper respiratory tract infection have a viral origin, antibiotic prescription for common cold has become a common practice in medicine. The prescription of an inappropriate and unnecessary antibiotics is the main cause of the development and increase of antibiotics resistance. Objective: The main objective of this study was set out to evaluate practice, attitude and knowledge about irrational use of antibiotics for common cold infection. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Shendi city from November 2020 to June 2021 comprised random population of different age groups who had a common cold infection before. A well established, self-administrated 100 questionnaires were randomly distributed to the population. Results: Of the 100 participants 49 were males 51 were famles.74% of them were highly educated. (15-25 years) age group comprised the majority 44%. All participants had common cold before 100% and 76% used antibiotics to treat this infection. 51% improved after taking antibiotics while 62% agreed that "Antibiotics cure common cold faster ".76% of participants mentioned they know the difference between cold and flu while the main reason behind using antibiotics for cold was physician prescriptions 48%. The majority 56% described antibiotics as the best treatment for common cold. Conclusion: Low level of knowledge about the nature of common cold infection and high levels of arbitrarily use of antibiotic for common cold in this study make it necessary to provide educational programs to raise the awareness about common cold and antibiotic resistance.

Keywords: Common cold, Antibiotics, Irrational use, Flu, Attitude, Practice.