Revista de Bioanálise e Biomedicina

Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Healthcare Professionals towards Antimicrobial Stewardship and Their Predictors in Fitche Hospital

Abstract

Gobazie Temesgen Tegagn, Tadele Mekuriya Yadesa and Yasin Ahmed

Background: The recognized effects of inappropriate use of antibiotics are multiple: rapid emergence of resistance, selection pressure on resistant microorganisms, adverse reactions, and treatment failures. An effective approach to improving antimicrobial use in hospitals is an organized antimicrobial management program known as Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS). It is used by healthcare institutions to reduce inappropriate antimicrobial use, improve patient outcomes and reduce adverse consequences of antimicrobial use.

Objective: The aim of this study is to assess knowledge, attitudes and practices of healthcare professionals towards antimicrobial stewardship and their predictors in Fitche hospital. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was designed based on an endorsed anonymous self-administered questionnaire. Stratified random sampling with proportional allocation was applied for sampling. The inclusion criteria for this study are all healthcare professionals who are willing to participate in the study excluding laboratory technicians and radiologists. Data was collected from April 20 to May 24, 2016, compiled, analyzed (using descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression) and presented using frequency table, figures and charts.

Results: There were a total of 107 participants. 64.5% of the respondents were males. More than half of participant had good knowledge (68.2%), 16% had positive attitude towards antimicrobial stewardship and 78% of Health Care Professionals had good practices related to antimicrobial stewardship. Age (p=0.354 SD=0.4), profession (p=0.52) and years of experience (p=0.125) are not significant predictors of health care professionals knowledge, attitude and practices towards Antimicrobial Stewardship.

Conclusion and recommendation: Despite the fact that the practice of Antimicrobial Stewardship is not implemented and well developed in most of hospitals and healthcare facilities, the level of Knowledge Attitude Practice towards the Antimicrobial Stewardship was good. However, surprisingly, in spite of the casual knowledge and selfreported practices of our study participant’s, attitude with regards to antibiotic use were found to be unsatisfactory.