Antibiotic Usage Patterns of Community-Dwelling Adults in Thailand: A Cross-Sectional Study.
Pannipa Boontein, Ketsarin Utriyaprasit, Autchariya Poungkaew and 2 others
PMID 40035218WHAT IT FOUND
Patients' antibiotic use behaviour was good on average, but 54.5% had inadequate medicine literacy and 13.3% thought antibiotics could stop once symptoms improved.
Patient literacy, awareness, care process, nurse experience and diarrhoea prescribing were linked to behaviour.
Key findings
01Patients' mean antibiotic use behaviour score was 37.3, indicating good behaviour, but 54.5% had inadequate rational drug use literacy.
02Most patients (85.1%) said antibiotics should be completed, but 13.3% thought antibiotics could be stopped after symptoms improved.
03Patient rational drug use literacy was the strongest variable associated with antibiotic use behaviour in the final model.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it can show links between factors and antibiotic use behaviour, but not that those factors caused the behaviour. Outcomes were self-reported, which can be affected by recall and social desirability bias. The paper reports 16 of 556 patients excluded for poor recall, yet also describes the cohort and tables as 556 patients, so the analysed patient number is unclear. It was done in 17 subdistrict health-promoting hospitals in two provinces of Thailand, so it may not apply elsewhere. Many measures were researcher-developed or adapted, although reported Cronbach's alpha was 0.7 to 0.85.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. Funding was from the Mahidol University Alumni Association, the National Research Council of Thailand and the Faculty of Nursing, Mahidol University.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the associations as proof that patient education, process of care or nurse experience change antibiotic use. This was a cross-sectional survey of self-reported behaviour, not a test of an intervention.