Background: Antimicrobial-resistant organisms are spreading worldwide and the pipeline for new antimicrobials remains meager. The next generation of doctors must be better prepared to use antimicrobials more sparingly and appropriately. According to the World Health Organization, education of healthcare workers and medical students on rational antimicrobial prescribing or antimicrobial stewardship is an integral part of all antimicrobial resistance containment activities. Objectives of this study were; to find out the proportion of students having adequate knowledge of antimicrobial resistance and to find out factors associated with knowledge of antimicrobial resistance.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical students of GMERS Medical College Junagadh from January to May 2017. Self-administered structured questionnaire in English was used. Score of 1 was given for each correct answer to calculate antimicrobial resistance knowledge score. Pearson‘s correlation co-efficient, t test, Analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used as tests of significance and p value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Results: Total 130 students participated in the study. Participation of females (48.5%) and males (51.5%) was almost equal. Almost 60% participants had adequate knowledge about antimicrobial resistance. The mean antimicrobial resistance knowledge score of participants was 22.7 (Standard deviation: ± 5.27, minimum score: 8, maximum score: 37). Correlation between percentage obtained in first M.B.B.S (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) University examination and knowledge score of antimicrobial resistance was found statistically significant (Pearson‘s correlation coefficient: 0.237, p=0.007).
Conclusions: Sixty percent participants had adequate knowledge about antimicrobial resistance. Important finding of the study was that just one forth of the participants agreed that information they have received so far in medical course regarding antimicrobial resistance is adequate. The budding doctors should receive correct, adequate information regarding antimicrobial resistance. There is further scope for incorporation of teaching regarding antimicrobial resistance and its consequences in undergraduate medical curriculum suitably.
Keywords: Antimicrobial resistance; Medical students; Pearson’s correlation coefficient; Antibiotics; Knowledge.