Abstract

A COMMUNITY BASED STUDY TO EVALUATE THE IMPACT OF PHARMACIST INTERVENTION ON ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE

Satish S., Madhushree* and A. R. Shabaraya

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is occurring everywhere in the world, compromising the treatment of infectious diseases and undermining many other advances in health and medicine, which also leads to higher costs of medical, extended hospital stays, and increased death rate. Inappropriate antibiotic use was major driver of antibiotic resistance. The present study was conducted to educate the patients for the appropriate use of antibiotics and to evaluate the impact of pharmacist intervention on antibiotic resistance among the people living in Dakshina kannada. It was community based interventional study conducted among 150 participants. Pre interventional study was done using WHO questionnaire to assess their perception on antibiotic use and resistance based on which Educational intervention was given and same group was used for post interventional study. The intervention was given using Patient information leaflets in Kannada and English, WHO handouts, Power point presentation, Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) video to educate the participants. Educational intervention has shown to be useful in raising the awareness and changing behavior of general public towards antibiotic resistance. Study depicted the association between level of education and knowledge of antibiotic resistance. The survey findings suggested that there is a gap in knowledge regarding antibiotic resistance in pre-educational intervention among the study population. Post study showed that educational intervention led to significant improvement in the knowledge of resistance (55.5%). Further, our study findings reported that giving appropriate educational intervention, the people became more aware of appropriate antibiotic use and the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance.

Keywords: Antibiotic resistance, use, knowledge, Awareness, Educational intervention, community.