Virgin Joena1
BACKGROUND Medical students especially interns in particular prescribe antibiotics on a day-today basis. Unscrupulous prescription of these antibiotics can have side effects ranging from as simple as gastro-intestinal upsets to as serious as development of antibiotics resistance. Appropriate knowledge of antibiotics amongst the interns can greatly help to combat this problem. Hence, a study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of rational use of antibiotics among interns based on predesigned proforma. METHODS This is a prospective, non-interventional, observational, analytical study conducted among 135 interns who had completed 6 months of their clinical postings in major subjects. It was designed mainly to assess the students’ knowledge, attitude and practice towards antibiotic usage. A well-structured questionnaire was developed referring from previously published studies and modified to suite the respondent population. The forms were collected immediately after completion. Data was analysed using simple descriptive statistics to generate frequencies, percentages and proportions. RESULTS A total of 135 interns participated in this study. Our study revealed that the knowledge, practice and behaviour towards prescribing antibiotics and awareness of students about antibiotics resistance was not good. 89% of the interns agree that antibiotic resistance is a major global problem; and 33% of the interns were not confident about prescribing antibiotics without taking advice from their seniors, showing that there is a lacuna in their knowledge about antibiotic prescription. CONCLUSIONS This study showed that there is a need for interventions (like strict antibiotics policy, scheduled antibiotics sensitization program, and integrated teaching) that support rational use of antibiotics.
