Abstract

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

Satish S., Likhitha Prakash* and A. R. Shabaraya

ABSTRACT

Inappropriate antibiotics use is a major global public health concern today. Usage of antibiotics has tremendously increased in the recent years. India was the world’s largest consumer of antibiotics. A community based interventional study evaluated the knowledge and awareness on antibiotic use and also educated the participants for the appropriate use of antibiotics which was aimed to assess the impact of pharmacist intervention among the participants of Dakshina kannada. The study employed WHO questionnaire. 150 Participants met the inclusion criteria and filled the informed consent were enrolled in the study, the same participants participated in pre-test were used for post analysis, the intervention was given using power point presentation, Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) video, Patient information leaflets translated in Kannada and WHO handouts to educate the participants, they were scored seperately in pre and post-intervention and were compared. Education play an important role in the well-being of human beings, analyzing antibiotic use in relation with the education level it was found that participants with school level education had poor knowledge when comparing with graduates, hence there was association between the level of education and knowledge on antibiotic use. Pre-study results suggests 28.23% of participants had knowledge on antibiotics but after intervention, post study showed significant improvement in the knowledge (73.23%) of antibiotics use. Study findings reported that giving intervention can create awareness of appropriate antibiotic use and also demonstrated a positive change in the behavior for addressing the issue of inappropriate antibiotic use among public.

Keywords: Antibiotics, Knowledge, Awareness, Educational intervention.