[European Antibiotic Awareness Day educational campaign--has it changed public attitudes to antibiotic use in Poland?].
Widespread inappropriate antibiotic use is a global concern for public health care. That is why national and international antibiotic resistance control strategies recommend education of health-care professionals and the public to promote prudent antibiotic use. This paper show the effect of the 2009 public antibiotic campaign in Poland on the knowledge and social attitudes towards use of antibiotics. The aim of this study was to assess the level of knowledge and behaviour models of Polish people regarding antibiotics, recommendations for their use as well as sources of information on antibiotics. At the same time the study was aimed at assessing whether actions undertaken during educational campaigns resulted in growing knowledge on the subject of antibiotic use or a change in attitudes towards this group of medicines.


METHODS
A two-stage survey was carried out from October to December 2009 based on 14 self prepared questions. The survey was carried out by Millward Brown SMG/KRC on the representative sample of 1000 people using CATI - Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews.


RESULTS
In Poland there is still a high percentage of people taking antibiotics. 37% of Polish people used an antibiotic in the last 12 months. Most Polish people--88% use an antibiotic prescribed by a doctor. At the same time Polish people receive antibiotics due to viral infections which should not be treated thus. The results of the survey show that almost half of adult Poles would expect to have an antibiotic prescribed in case of a flu. Over half of Polish people believe that antibiotics kill viruses. Over 1/3 of recipients, who have come across information on prudent use of antibiotics (mostly due to National Program for Antibiotics Protection) claimed to have changed their behavior model regarding this group of medicines.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study show that further and systematic education regarding appropriate antibiotic use is needed.
Narodowy Instytut Leków w Warszawie, Zakład Epidemiologii i Mikrobiologii Klinicznej, Narodowy Program Ochrony Antybiotyków. sekret@cls.edu.pl
Beata
B
Mazińska
Waleria
W
Hryniewicz
D000328:Adult; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D054626:Consumer Health Information / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D017723:Drug Utilization Review / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011044:Poland; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011639:Public Opinion; D055815:Young Adult
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents