4.3 Knowledge of antibiotics use among the respondents
WHO along with multiple national guidelines and protocols, strongly advise patients that “a full course of antibiotics should be finished even feeling better because stopping treatment early promotes the growth of drug-resistant bacteria”.22,23 It is noteworthy that all respondents in our study are having good compliance with the antibiotic regimen. In contrast, a survey conducted in Greece revealed that only 59% of them completed the full course of the antibiotic regimen.24 This discrepancy could be attributed to our respondents are all final year medical students who have gone through adequate clinical practices. Hence, they are more conscious about the consequences of non-compliance to the full prescription regimen.
Apart from that, the overall knowledge of antibiotics’ use in various conditions among the respondents was moderate to good. This finding was consistent with the prior studies,18,19,25 which also showed adequate knowledge on the use of antibiotics. Among the respondents of this current study, most of them know that antibiotics can only be used to kill bacteria and treat bacterial infections instead of the viral infections such as HIV or AIDS, cold and flu. Interestingly, half of our respondents agreed that antibiotic can be used in treating sore throat condition. In fact, antibiotics should not be chosen as first-line treatment in treating any pain or inflammation as they are not indicated for this purpose.18 This misconception might due to the limited knowledge of the rational use of antibiotics.26 Therefore, the future prescriber should be well taught on the proper use of antibiotics in order to provide a better treatment outcome to the patients. More rigorous courses and assessments regarding the rational use of antibiotics are advisable to be imparted into the medical curriculum program.