Attitudes and perceptions regarding antimicrobial use and resistance among medical students in Central China

OBJECTIVES: Senior medical students, who are future doctors, should be prepared to use antimicrobials appropriately and will be important partners in antimicrobial stewardship. This survey was designed to investigate the attitudes and perceptions of senior medical students regarding antimicrobial use and resistance. METHODOLOGY: We performed a multi-center survey involving a questionnaire handed out to all fourth year medical students from five representative teaching hospitals in Central China. The survey was completed within 1 month (October to November, 2015). Antimicrobial stewardship programs were taught in all of the teaching hospitals, yet only part of the respondents took part in it. RESULTS: A total of 611 out of 728 students completed our survey. The majority of the respondents (92 %) believed that inappropriate use of antimicrobials causes antimicrobial resistance and agreed with the importance of a strong knowledge of antimicrobials in their medical careers. Most students (67 %) rated their education concerning antimicrobial use and resistance as useful or very useful, but only 25 % recalled having courses on this subject. The overall mean number of correct answers on a section of 11 knowledge questions was 3.78 (standard deviation 1.57, P value for score between hospitals <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: We should make an effort to optimize curriculum system in Chinese institutions, and this may contribute to making our future doctors better prepared for antimicrobial stewardship and prudent antimicrobial prescribing. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40064-016-3454-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.