IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0180799.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is the level of knowledge a predictor of rational antibiotic use in Serbia?

Author

Listed:
  • Olga J Horvat
  • Ana D Tomas
  • Milica M Paut Kusturica
  • Alisa V Savkov
  • Dragica U Bukumirić
  • Zdenko S Tomić
  • Ana J Sabo

Abstract

Introduction: The objective of this study was to investigate the knowledge, attitudes and behavior regarding antibiotics of the general population. Methods: The study sample consisted of adult subjects who consulted general practitioners at health centers in Serbia and agreed to complete the questionnaire. A total of 668 questionnaires were distributed; 500 respondents completed the entire questionnaire (response rate 74.85%). Results: The average age was 51.65 ± 16.56 years, 60.80% of the respondents were women. The median antibiotic knowledge score was 9. Predictors of adequate antibiotic knowledge were higher education level and a family member whose ocuppation was related to health-care. Overall, 58.4% of respondents believed that antibiotics could be used to treat common cold. Around a half of the respondents (47.2%) self-medicated with antibiotics at least once during their life-time, and around a quarter (24.2%) during the last treatment of infection. Patients with inadequate knowledge had 3 times higher chances of self-medicating with antibiotics compared to those with adequate knowledge. Although 98.20% of respondents claimed that antibiotic treatment should be started after a visit to a doctor and receiving a prescription, only 65.8% obtained antibiotics with prescription from a doctor during the last infection. Conclusions: Although these results demonstrate that respondents had a relatively adequate level of knowledge regarding antibiotics use, some areas of misconceptions and improper behavior were identified. Therefore, further rationalization should be focused on educational campaigns targeting the behavior of patients with regard to antibiotic use.

Suggested Citation

  • Olga J Horvat & Ana D Tomas & Milica M Paut Kusturica & Alisa V Savkov & Dragica U Bukumirić & Zdenko S Tomić & Ana J Sabo, 2017. "Is the level of knowledge a predictor of rational antibiotic use in Serbia?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-13, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0180799
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0180799
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180799
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180799&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0180799?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martina Vallin & Maria Polyzoi & Gaetano Marrone & Senia Rosales-Klintz & Karin Tegmark Wisell & Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg, 2016. "Knowledge and Attitudes towards Antibiotic Use and Resistance - A Latent Class Analysis of a Swedish Population-Based Sample," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(4), pages 1-18, April.
    2. Francesco Napolitano & Maria Teresa Izzo & Gabriella Di Giuseppe & Italo F Angelillo, 2013. "Public Knowledge, Attitudes, and Experience Regarding the Use of Antibiotics in Italy," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-6, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Olga Horvat & Ana Tomas & Milica Paut Kusturica & Dragica Bukumiric & Bojan Blagojevic & Zorana Kovacevic, 2020. "Serbian students’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour towards antibiotic use: is there room for improvement?," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 65(8), pages 1257-1267, November.
    2. Alistair Anderson, 2018. "Online health information and public knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours regarding antibiotics in the UK: Multiple regression analysis of Wellcome Monitor and Eurobarometer Data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(10), pages 1-15, October.
    3. Ana Tomas Petrović & Nebojša Pavlović & Nebojša Stilinović & Nikola Lalović & Milica Paut Kusturica & Tihomir Dugandžija & Dragana Zaklan & Olga Horvat, 2022. "Self-Medication Perceptions and Practice of Medical and Pharmacy Students in Serbia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-13, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Felicia Robertson & Sverker C. Jagers & Björn Rönnerstrand, 2018. "Managing Sustainable Use of Antibiotics—The Role of Trust," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, January.
    2. Elena Narcisa Pogurschi & Carmen Daniela Petcu & Alexandru Eugeniu Mizeranschi & Corina Aurelia Zugravu & Daniela Cirnatu & Ioan Pet & Oana-Mărgărita Ghimpețeanu, 2022. "Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Regarding Antibiotic Use and Antibiotic Resistance: A Latent Class Analysis of a Romanian Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-16, June.
    3. Mohit Nair & Santanu Tripathi & Sumit Mazumdar & Raman Mahajan & Amit Harshana & Alan Pereira & Carolina Jimenez & Debasish Halder & Sakib Burza, 2019. "Knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to antibiotic use in Paschim Bardhaman District: A survey of healthcare providers in West Bengal, India," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-14, May.
    4. Abdoulkader Ali Adou & Francesco Napolitano & Alessandra Vastola & Italo Francesco Angelillo, 2019. "Travelers’ knowledge, attitudes, and behavior related to infectious diseases in Italy," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-12, April.
    5. Diana Cascone & Davide Tomassoni & Francesco Napolitano & Gabriella Di Giuseppe, 2019. "Evaluation of Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices about Exclusive Breastfeeding among Women in Italy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-11, June.
    6. Alexandra Waluszewski & Alessandro Cinti & Andrea Perna, 2021. "Antibiotics in pig meat production: restrictions as the odd case and overuse as normality? Experiences from Sweden and Italy," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-12, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0180799. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.