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The Internet: Friend or Foe of Antibiotic Resistance? Results of a Cross-Sectional Study among Italian University Students

The study aims were to investigate knowledge and attitudes towards antibiotics and antibiotic resistance (ABR), and to assess the extent of practices regarding antibiotic consumption and Internet use among university students in Southern Italy. Data were collected through an anonymous online questio...

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Autores principales: Licata, Francesca, Angelillo, Silvia, Oliverio, Alessandra, Bianco, Aida
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8470861/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34572673
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10091091
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author Licata, Francesca
Angelillo, Silvia
Oliverio, Alessandra
Bianco, Aida
author_facet Licata, Francesca
Angelillo, Silvia
Oliverio, Alessandra
Bianco, Aida
author_sort Licata, Francesca
collection PubMed
description The study aims were to investigate knowledge and attitudes towards antibiotics and antibiotic resistance (ABR), and to assess the extent of practices regarding antibiotic consumption and Internet use among university students in Southern Italy. Data were collected through an anonymous online questionnaire from 1 April to 14 April 2021. The eligibility criteria for the study were: (i) age between 18 and 30 years and (ii) registered as an undergraduate student at the university. Among the 1051 sampled students, only 7.4% gave the correct answer to all 7 knowledge statements about antibiotics and ABR. The main determinants of knowledge were being younger and attending to medical or life sciences majors. Almost two-thirds took an antibiotic in the previous 12 months and 24.6% reported having self-medicated with antibiotics. More than half of the sample used the Internet to seek information about antibiotics and/or ABR, and it was the strongest predictor of self-medication with antibiotics. The study findings highlighted gaps in knowledge, considerable antibiotic consumption, sometimes without prescription, together with an extensive Internet use to seek health-related information. To facilitate the health-promoting use of the Internet in conjunction with health care providers, we could make young adults aware of the rational use of antibiotics.
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spelling pubmed-84708612021-09-27 The Internet: Friend or Foe of Antibiotic Resistance? Results of a Cross-Sectional Study among Italian University Students Licata, Francesca Angelillo, Silvia Oliverio, Alessandra Bianco, Aida Antibiotics (Basel) Article The study aims were to investigate knowledge and attitudes towards antibiotics and antibiotic resistance (ABR), and to assess the extent of practices regarding antibiotic consumption and Internet use among university students in Southern Italy. Data were collected through an anonymous online questionnaire from 1 April to 14 April 2021. The eligibility criteria for the study were: (i) age between 18 and 30 years and (ii) registered as an undergraduate student at the university. Among the 1051 sampled students, only 7.4% gave the correct answer to all 7 knowledge statements about antibiotics and ABR. The main determinants of knowledge were being younger and attending to medical or life sciences majors. Almost two-thirds took an antibiotic in the previous 12 months and 24.6% reported having self-medicated with antibiotics. More than half of the sample used the Internet to seek information about antibiotics and/or ABR, and it was the strongest predictor of self-medication with antibiotics. The study findings highlighted gaps in knowledge, considerable antibiotic consumption, sometimes without prescription, together with an extensive Internet use to seek health-related information. To facilitate the health-promoting use of the Internet in conjunction with health care providers, we could make young adults aware of the rational use of antibiotics. MDPI 2021-09-09 /pmc/articles/PMC8470861/ /pubmed/34572673 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10091091 Text en © 2021 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
Licata, Francesca
Angelillo, Silvia
Oliverio, Alessandra
Bianco, Aida
The Internet: Friend or Foe of Antibiotic Resistance? Results of a Cross-Sectional Study among Italian University Students
title The Internet: Friend or Foe of Antibiotic Resistance? Results of a Cross-Sectional Study among Italian University Students
title_full The Internet: Friend or Foe of Antibiotic Resistance? Results of a Cross-Sectional Study among Italian University Students
title_fullStr The Internet: Friend or Foe of Antibiotic Resistance? Results of a Cross-Sectional Study among Italian University Students
title_full_unstemmed The Internet: Friend or Foe of Antibiotic Resistance? Results of a Cross-Sectional Study among Italian University Students
title_short The Internet: Friend or Foe of Antibiotic Resistance? Results of a Cross-Sectional Study among Italian University Students
title_sort internet: friend or foe of antibiotic resistance? results of a cross-sectional study among italian university students
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8470861/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34572673
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10091091
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