Antibiotics use and misuse in upper respiratory tract infection patients: Knowledge,attitude and practice analysis in university hospital,Saudi Arabia

Objective: to assess the awareness and causes of antibiotics use and misuse in patients with upper respiratory tract infections. methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted at king saud university,riyadh,saudi arabia,from january 2014 to december 2015,and comprised patients suffering from upper respiratory tract infections. a well-established,self-administrated questionnaire was randomly distributed to the patients. the questionnaire consisted of 3 parts: demographic variables,knowledge,and beliefs,and behaviour towards antibiotic use and misuse. spss 21 was used for data analysis. results: of the 400 participants,193(48.25%) were males and 207(51.75%) were females. besides,182(45.5%) participants used antibiotics without prescription (p=0.050) and 43(10.8%) used the mover a pharmacist's advice (p=0.030). also,69(17.3%) participants forced the physicians to prescribe antibiotic (p=0.014),and 207(51.7%) patients stopped taking antibiotics when they felt better (p=0.007). moreover,180(45%) had the antibiotic stocks at home in case of emergencies. in addition,67(16.8%) were ignoring the instructions when taking antibiotics (p=0.004). furthermore,48(12%) participants denied that an antibiotic could cause an allergic reaction (p=0.054) and the same number of participants believed that the effectiveness of the treatment would not be affected if a full course of antibiotic was not completed (p=0.029). in addition,29(7.3%) participants with high educational level believed that all antibiotics did not have side-effects (p=0.002) and 71(17.8%) of them believed that if symptoms were improving the antibiotic course could be interrupted without completing (p=0.037). conclusion: misconceptions existed about the use and indications of antibiotics. © 2017,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.