Knowledge and Attitude Towards Antibiotic Usage Among General Public in Shah Alam, Malaysia

The emergence of superbugs and antibiotic resistance bacteria nowadays make a limited choice of antibiotic available for treatment. This circumstance is an alarming to public health. Thus, public knowledge and attitude towards antibiotic usage play an important role in the success of treatment process. This study aimed to evaluate public knowledge and attitude towards antibiotic utilization and the association of knowledge with demographic variables. A self-administered cross-sectional survey was conducted involving 380 respondents by using a pre-validate questionnaire at public places in Shah Alam, Malaysia from January 2014 to April 2014. From this study, it was analyzed that 43% of respondents have good knowledge towards antibiotic. Majority of the respondents knew antibiotic is used for bacterial infection. However, 40% of respondents misunderstood that antibiotic is indicated for viral infection. Half of the respondents know how to differentiate antibiotic with other drugs. High number of respondents, 63.2% knows that they need to complete full course of antibiotic, however in the attitude statement; only 57.9% of respondents complete their antibiotic course.Based on the percentage of correct response on the attitude statement positive attitude was observed. However, 57.4% still expect antibiotic to be prescribed for common cold. Demographic characteristics such as gender, race, educational level and healthcare occupation were found significant association with knowledge of antibiotic usage. It has been concluded that although knowledge of public is good, public should be stressed out of the importance of correct usage of antibiotic and promote changes in their attitude towards antibiotic usage.