Antibiotics Use, Resistance and Self-medication Practices among Healthcare Workers in a Federal Teaching Hospital in Southwest, Nigeria

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance is a major threat to global health, and inappropriate drug use, including antibiotic self-medication, has been identified as an important factor in developing countries. This study assessed the knowledge, and attitude of antibiotic use and antibiotics resistance, as well as the practice of self-medication among healthcare workers. This is a cross-sectional study conducted in a federal teaching hospital in Southwest, Nigeria among 320 healthcare workers selected through a two-stage sampling technique. A thirty-four-item self-administered semi-structured questionnaire adapted from the questionnaire on antibiotic resistance: multi-country public awareness survey by the WHO was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation and logistic regression were carried out using SPSS version 25.0. The mean ±SD age of the participants was 36.3 ±9.2years and over one-third (37.5%) of them had 6-10years of experience. About two-thirds (66.3%) of the participants had good knowledge about antibiotic use and resistance while only 39.4% had positive attitudes. The prevalence of self-medication with antibiotics was 30%. The identified positive predictors of antibiotics self-medication included having primary education (AOR:5.874, 95%CI:1.020-33.836) compared with tertiary education, poor knowledge (AOR:1.683, 95%CI:1.015-2.789) compared with good knowledge about antibiotic use and resistance as well as negative attitude (AOR:1.861, 95%CI:1.102-3.143) compared with a positive attitude towards antibiotic use and resistance. The level of knowledge and attitude in this study was suboptimal. Self-medication was linked with a lower level of education, poor knowledge, and a negative attitude. Therefore, we recommend the provision of appropriate health education to promote the rational use of antibiotics.