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Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Self-Medication Including Antibiotics among Health Care Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Pakistan: Findings and Implications

Since the emergence of COVID-19, several different medicines including antimicrobials have been administered to patients to treat COVID-19. This is despite limited evidence of the effectiveness of many of these, fueled by misinformation. These utilization patterns have resulted in concerns for patie...

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Autores principales: Mustafa, Zia Ul, Iqbal, Shahid, Asif, Hafiz Rahil, Salman, Muhammad, Jabbar, Sehar, Mallhi, Tauqeer Hussain, Khan, Yusra Habib, Sono, Tiyani Milta, Schellack, Natalie, Meyer, Johanna C., Godman, Brian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10044347/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36978348
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12030481
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author Mustafa, Zia Ul
Iqbal, Shahid
Asif, Hafiz Rahil
Salman, Muhammad
Jabbar, Sehar
Mallhi, Tauqeer Hussain
Khan, Yusra Habib
Sono, Tiyani Milta
Schellack, Natalie
Meyer, Johanna C.
Godman, Brian
author_facet Mustafa, Zia Ul
Iqbal, Shahid
Asif, Hafiz Rahil
Salman, Muhammad
Jabbar, Sehar
Mallhi, Tauqeer Hussain
Khan, Yusra Habib
Sono, Tiyani Milta
Schellack, Natalie
Meyer, Johanna C.
Godman, Brian
author_sort Mustafa, Zia Ul
collection PubMed
description Since the emergence of COVID-19, several different medicines including antimicrobials have been administered to patients to treat COVID-19. This is despite limited evidence of the effectiveness of many of these, fueled by misinformation. These utilization patterns have resulted in concerns for patients’ safety and a rise in antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Healthcare workers (HCWs) were required to serve in high-risk areas throughout the pandemic. Consequently, they may be inclined towards self-medication. However, they have a responsibility to ensure any medicines recommended or prescribed for the management of patients with COVID-19 are evidence-based. However, this is not always the case. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among HCWs in six districts of the Punjab to assess their knowledge, attitude and practices of self-medication during the ongoing pandemic. This included HCWs working a range of public sector hospitals in the Punjab Province. A total of 1173 HCWs were included in the final analysis. The majority of HCWs possessed good knowledge regarding self-medication and good attitudes. However, 60% were practicing self-medication amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The most frequent medicines consumed by the HCWs under self-medication were antipyretics (100%), antibiotics (80.4%) and vitamins (59.9%). Azithromycin was the most commonly purchase antibiotic (35.1%). In conclusion, HCWs possess good knowledge of, and attitude regarding, medicines they purchased. However, there are concerns that high rates of purchasing antibiotics, especially “Watch” antibiotics, for self-medication may enhance AMR. This needs addressing.
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spelling pubmed-100443472023-03-29 Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Self-Medication Including Antibiotics among Health Care Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Pakistan: Findings and Implications Mustafa, Zia Ul Iqbal, Shahid Asif, Hafiz Rahil Salman, Muhammad Jabbar, Sehar Mallhi, Tauqeer Hussain Khan, Yusra Habib Sono, Tiyani Milta Schellack, Natalie Meyer, Johanna C. Godman, Brian Antibiotics (Basel) Article Since the emergence of COVID-19, several different medicines including antimicrobials have been administered to patients to treat COVID-19. This is despite limited evidence of the effectiveness of many of these, fueled by misinformation. These utilization patterns have resulted in concerns for patients’ safety and a rise in antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Healthcare workers (HCWs) were required to serve in high-risk areas throughout the pandemic. Consequently, they may be inclined towards self-medication. However, they have a responsibility to ensure any medicines recommended or prescribed for the management of patients with COVID-19 are evidence-based. However, this is not always the case. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among HCWs in six districts of the Punjab to assess their knowledge, attitude and practices of self-medication during the ongoing pandemic. This included HCWs working a range of public sector hospitals in the Punjab Province. A total of 1173 HCWs were included in the final analysis. The majority of HCWs possessed good knowledge regarding self-medication and good attitudes. However, 60% were practicing self-medication amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The most frequent medicines consumed by the HCWs under self-medication were antipyretics (100%), antibiotics (80.4%) and vitamins (59.9%). Azithromycin was the most commonly purchase antibiotic (35.1%). In conclusion, HCWs possess good knowledge of, and attitude regarding, medicines they purchased. However, there are concerns that high rates of purchasing antibiotics, especially “Watch” antibiotics, for self-medication may enhance AMR. This needs addressing. MDPI 2023-02-28 /pmc/articles/PMC10044347/ /pubmed/36978348 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12030481 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Mustafa, Zia Ul
Iqbal, Shahid
Asif, Hafiz Rahil
Salman, Muhammad
Jabbar, Sehar
Mallhi, Tauqeer Hussain
Khan, Yusra Habib
Sono, Tiyani Milta
Schellack, Natalie
Meyer, Johanna C.
Godman, Brian
Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Self-Medication Including Antibiotics among Health Care Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Pakistan: Findings and Implications
title Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Self-Medication Including Antibiotics among Health Care Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Pakistan: Findings and Implications
title_full Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Self-Medication Including Antibiotics among Health Care Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Pakistan: Findings and Implications
title_fullStr Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Self-Medication Including Antibiotics among Health Care Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Pakistan: Findings and Implications
title_full_unstemmed Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Self-Medication Including Antibiotics among Health Care Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Pakistan: Findings and Implications
title_short Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Self-Medication Including Antibiotics among Health Care Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Pakistan: Findings and Implications
title_sort knowledge, attitude and practices of self-medication including antibiotics among health care professionals during the covid-19 pandemic in pakistan: findings and implications
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10044347/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36978348
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12030481
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