International Health Policy Program, Ministry of Public Health, Nonthaburi, Thailand.
National Statistical Office, Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Bangkok, Thailand.
PLoS One. 2019 Aug 9;14(8):e0220990. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220990. eCollection 2019.
The Thailand National Strategic Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) 2017-2021, endorsed by the Thai Cabinet in 2016, aims to increase public knowledge about antibiotics and AMR awareness by 20% by 2021. This study assesses the prevalence of antibiotics use, clinical indications and sources; knowledge and access to information related to antibiotics and AMR; and factors related to level of knowledge and access to information among Thai adult population.
An AMR module was developed and embedded into the 2017 Health and Welfare Survey; a cross-sectional, two-stage stratified sampling, nationally representative household survey carried out biannually by National Statistical Office. The survey applied a structured interview questionnaire. The survey was conducted in March 2017 where 27,762 Thai adults were interviewed of the AMR module. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
The one-month prevalence of antibiotic use was 7.9% for three common conditions; flu (27.0%), fever (19.2%) and sore throat (16.8%). The majority of antibiotics (70.3%) were provided by public or private healthcare facilities, and 26.7% by pharmacies. Thai adults have low levels of knowledge about antibiotics; only 2.6 gave correct answers to all six statements related to antibiotics, while 13.5% gave wrong answers to all six statements. A few factors associated with knowledge and having received information on antibiotics were assessed. People who have higher education levels, and belong to richer wealth quintiles, and receive antibiotics and AMR information have significantly higher levels of knowledge about antibiotics. In the last 12 months, only 17.8% of respondents had heard information about the proper use of antibiotics and AMR; mostly from doctors (36.1%), health workers (24.8%) and pharmacists (17.7%).
There is a large gap of public knowledge about the use of antibiotics. The main communication channel is through healthcare professionals, which indicates they are key persons in communicating information about the proper use of antibiotics to the public.
2016 年，泰国内阁批准了 2017-2021 年泰国国家抗菌药物耐药性战略计划，旨在到 2021 年将公众对抗生素和抗菌药物耐药性的认识提高 20%。本研究评估了泰国成年人对抗生素使用、临床指征和来源的认识；对抗生素和抗菌药物耐药性相关知识和信息的获取；以及与知识和信息获取水平相关的因素。
开发了一个抗菌药物耐药性模块，并将其嵌入 2017 年健康与福利调查中；这是国家统计局每两年进行一次的全国代表性家庭横断面、两阶段分层抽样调查。该调查采用了结构化访谈问卷。调查于 2017 年 3 月进行，对 27762 名泰国成年人进行了抗菌药物耐药性模块的访谈。使用描述性和推断性统计方法进行数据分析。
三种常见疾病（流感 27.0%、发热 19.2%和咽痛 16.8%）的一个月抗生素使用比例为 7.9%。大多数抗生素（70.3%）是在公共或私人医疗机构提供的，26.7%是在药店提供的。泰国成年人对抗生素的了解程度较低；只有 2.6%的人对所有与抗生素相关的六个问题都给出了正确答案，而 13.5%的人对所有六个问题都给出了错误答案。评估了一些与知识和接受抗生素信息相关的因素。受教育程度较高、属于较富裕的五分位数人群、接受过抗生素和抗菌药物耐药性信息的人群对抗生素的了解程度显著较高。在过去的 12 个月中，只有 17.8%的受访者听说过关于正确使用抗生素和抗菌药物耐药性的信息；主要来自医生（36.1%）、卫生工作者（24.8%）和药剂师（17.7%）。
公众对抗生素使用的知识存在很大差距。主要的沟通渠道是通过医疗保健专业人员，这表明他们是向公众传播正确使用抗生素信息的关键人物。
