The public's perspectives on antibiotic resistance and abuse among Chinese in Hong Kong.
OBJECTIVE
Antibiotic abuse and resistance impose a continuing threat to the world. The awareness of antibiotic resistance is said to be inversely associated with the prevalence of abuse. We examined the public's perspectives on antibiotic resistance in our study of the public's knowledge, attitude and practice with antibiotics.


METHODS
The study adopted a combined qualitative and quantitative approach. Eight focus groups were conducted with 56 participants purposively selected from community centres and of different socio-economic strata. The qualitative data collected were used to construct a questionnaire for the telephone survey which surveyed 2471 adults from randomly selected residential numbers.


RESULTS
The focus-group participants were unclear about the nature and causes of antibiotic resistance; they also attributed antibiotic abuse to the doctors' responsibility. Of the questionnaire respondents, 9.0% had not heard of the term, 7.8% had ever acquired non-prescribed antibiotics, 6.6% had ever kept the leftover and only 69.8% had always finished the full course of antibiotics. Furthermore, 77.3 % and 75.1%, respectively, agreed that the purchase of antibiotics without prescription and incomplete courses of antibiotics would lead to undesirable consequences. Of the respondents who had heard about antibiotic resistance, 38.7% agreed that they could help the prevention of resistance. They were more likely to complete the full course of antibiotics and less likely to keep the leftovers.


CONCLUSIONS
The public in general was not aware of the causes of, nor their role and capability in preventing, antibiotic resistance. Future campaigns and health education should empower everyone to restrain antibiotic resistance.
Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Yuk Tsan
YT
Wun
Tai Pong
TP
Lam
Kwok Fai
KF
Lam
Pak Leung
PL
Ho
Wai Hung Raymond
WH
Yung
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000009:adverse effects*; D001364:Awareness; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D055118:Medication Adherence; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010465:Perception; D063487:Prescription Drug Misuse; D011639:Public Opinion; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012307:Risk Factors; D012651:Self Medication / Q000009:adverse effects; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents