Public knowledge and attitudes regarding antibiotic use in Ankara, Turkey

Objective: Turkey is one of the countries with the highest antibiotic consumption per capita and suffers widespread antimicrobial resistance. However, few studies are measuring the knowledge, attitude and behaviour regarding antibiotic use in Turkey. We aimed to describe the awareness, knowledge, beliefs, attitude and behaviour of the society regarding antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out at a large shopping mall with 60 000-75 000 visitors daily in the capital city of Turkey, Ankara. We applied a questionnaire to the visitors who accepted to participate for two days. The data were collected on demographics, knowledge, attitude and beliefs concerning antibiotic use and awareness of judicious antibiotic use (JAU) and related factors. Results: Of the 1044 people who attended the study, 554 were male (52.1%). The average age of the participants was 37.7. JAU was found to be high (10/10 points) in 127 participants (12.2%). JAU was statistically high among people who were informed about the potential harms of inappropriate antibiotic use by physicians (p<0.001), who had university degree (p=0.005), who did not used to use antibiotics without prescriptions (p<0.001), and who did not use antibiotics within the last year (p<0.001). Conclusion: Awareness and knowledge about JAU in Ankara were low. There are misbeliefs and inappropriate attitudes in terms of antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance. Necessary precautions should be taken immediately to improve this issue.