Understanding of the Antibiotic Misuse among the General Public of Rafha City of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Antimicrobial or antibiotic resistance has become a leading cause of the death of millions of patients around the globe, including in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Misuse of antibiotics has been identified as one of the main contributing factors to the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Therefore, it is essential to assess the awareness and knowledge of antibiotic misuse among global antibiotic users. The present study aimed to evaluate the awareness and understanding of antibiotic misuse among the people of Rafha city of Saudi Arabia. A questionnaire was used to perform this cross-sectional study, which was carried out from September 2019 to February 2020. The results of this study have revealed that most of the young people discontinue their antibiotic course after symptomatic relief; they are not aware of the antibiotic sensitivity; they do not adhere to the antibiotic schedule, and they prefer readily available cheaper antibiotics. All these significant findings are related to the development of antibiotic resistance. Therefore, there is a need to address these issues to the concerned health care authority of this region. However, further studies that can correlate the cause-effect relationships among the factors and the misuse of the antibiotic are also recommended.