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A natural history museum visitor survey of perception, attitude and knowledge (PAK) of microbes and antibiotics

A kiosk-based survey at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in 2016–2018 allowed us to assess public knowledge of antibiotics and public attitudes toward microbes in museum goers. Over 22,000 visitors from 172 countries and territories answered several carefully designed question...

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Autores principales: Zichello, Julia, Gupta, Preeti, Scott, Monique, Desai, Bella, Cohen, Ruth, Halderman, Lauri, Perkins, Susan, Porzecanski, Ana, Planet, Paul J., Wyner, Yael, Blaser, Martin, Burk, Robert, Diamond, Judy, Kennett, Rod, Borland, Jennifer, DeSalle, Rob
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8457478/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34550986
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257085
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author Zichello, Julia
Gupta, Preeti
Scott, Monique
Desai, Bella
Cohen, Ruth
Halderman, Lauri
Perkins, Susan
Porzecanski, Ana
Planet, Paul J.
Wyner, Yael
Blaser, Martin
Burk, Robert
Diamond, Judy
Kennett, Rod
Borland, Jennifer
DeSalle, Rob
author_facet Zichello, Julia
Gupta, Preeti
Scott, Monique
Desai, Bella
Cohen, Ruth
Halderman, Lauri
Perkins, Susan
Porzecanski, Ana
Planet, Paul J.
Wyner, Yael
Blaser, Martin
Burk, Robert
Diamond, Judy
Kennett, Rod
Borland, Jennifer
DeSalle, Rob
author_sort Zichello, Julia
collection PubMed
description A kiosk-based survey at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in 2016–2018 allowed us to assess public knowledge of antibiotics and public attitudes toward microbes in museum goers. Over 22,000 visitors from 172 countries and territories answered several carefully designed questions about microbes and antibiotics. These visitors also entered age, gender, and country demographic data that allowed for stratification along these demographic and geographic divisions. Because museum goers are likely to be better informed about these and other science-based topics, the results described here can set a potential upper bound for public knowledge on these topics. Surprisingly, the results of our analysis of museum goers’ answers about microbes and antibiotics indicate a substantial lack of familiarity with both topics. For example, overall only about 50% of respondents can correctly identify penicillin as an antibiotic and less than 50% of museum visitors view microbes as beneficial. The results described here suggest that we are perhaps off target with our educational efforts in this area and that a major shift in approach toward more basic microbial topics is warranted in our educational efforts.
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spelling pubmed-84574782021-09-23 A natural history museum visitor survey of perception, attitude and knowledge (PAK) of microbes and antibiotics Zichello, Julia Gupta, Preeti Scott, Monique Desai, Bella Cohen, Ruth Halderman, Lauri Perkins, Susan Porzecanski, Ana Planet, Paul J. Wyner, Yael Blaser, Martin Burk, Robert Diamond, Judy Kennett, Rod Borland, Jennifer DeSalle, Rob PLoS One Research Article A kiosk-based survey at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in 2016–2018 allowed us to assess public knowledge of antibiotics and public attitudes toward microbes in museum goers. Over 22,000 visitors from 172 countries and territories answered several carefully designed questions about microbes and antibiotics. These visitors also entered age, gender, and country demographic data that allowed for stratification along these demographic and geographic divisions. Because museum goers are likely to be better informed about these and other science-based topics, the results described here can set a potential upper bound for public knowledge on these topics. Surprisingly, the results of our analysis of museum goers’ answers about microbes and antibiotics indicate a substantial lack of familiarity with both topics. For example, overall only about 50% of respondents can correctly identify penicillin as an antibiotic and less than 50% of museum visitors view microbes as beneficial. The results described here suggest that we are perhaps off target with our educational efforts in this area and that a major shift in approach toward more basic microbial topics is warranted in our educational efforts. Public Library of Science 2021-09-22 /pmc/articles/PMC8457478/ /pubmed/34550986 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257085 Text en © 2021 Zichello et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Zichello, Julia
Gupta, Preeti
Scott, Monique
Desai, Bella
Cohen, Ruth
Halderman, Lauri
Perkins, Susan
Porzecanski, Ana
Planet, Paul J.
Wyner, Yael
Blaser, Martin
Burk, Robert
Diamond, Judy
Kennett, Rod
Borland, Jennifer
DeSalle, Rob
A natural history museum visitor survey of perception, attitude and knowledge (PAK) of microbes and antibiotics
title A natural history museum visitor survey of perception, attitude and knowledge (PAK) of microbes and antibiotics
title_full A natural history museum visitor survey of perception, attitude and knowledge (PAK) of microbes and antibiotics
title_fullStr A natural history museum visitor survey of perception, attitude and knowledge (PAK) of microbes and antibiotics
title_full_unstemmed A natural history museum visitor survey of perception, attitude and knowledge (PAK) of microbes and antibiotics
title_short A natural history museum visitor survey of perception, attitude and knowledge (PAK) of microbes and antibiotics
title_sort natural history museum visitor survey of perception, attitude and knowledge (pak) of microbes and antibiotics
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8457478/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34550986
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257085
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