title: Patients' antibiotic knowledge: a trial assessing the impact of verbal education.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of involving community pharmacy staff in patient education about antibiotic resistance, thus improving antibiotic knowledge.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-four patients presenting a valid antibiotic script for dispensing at three community pharmacies in regional New South Wales, Australia were randomly allocated by ballot draw to an intervention group or control group. Those in the intervention group were provided with verbal education based on an Australian National Prescribing Service patient leaflet regarding antibiotics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This paper presents pilot data indicating that there was a significant increase in antibiotic knowledge determined approximately 1 month after receiving verbal antibiotic education (33.3 ± 40.8) as compared with patients not receiving verbal antibiotic education (-5.1 ± 23.0), t (18.9) = 2.957, P = 0.008.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study has shown that verbal education, provided within a community pharmacy, regarding antibiotics improved patients' knowledge about antibiotics and provides evidence for the critical role of pharmacy staff in patient education.
authors.affiliation: School of Science and Technology, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Alyce
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Northey
authors.forename: Therese
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: McGuren
authors.forename: Ieva
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Stupans
mesh_terms: D003157:Community Pharmacy Services; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D009517:New South Wales; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology*; D010865:Pilot Projects
keywords: antibiotic resistance; patient education; patient information