Impact of Infectious Diseases training in the perception of antibiotic resistance and rational use of antibiotics among Spanish medical students – a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Antibiotic resistance is one of the main public health problems worldwide. One key tool to optimize antibiotic prescription is medical training. The aim of this study is to compare the impact of training in infectious diseases on students’ knowledge of the antibiotic resistance problem and the rational use of antibiotics. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional study in the medical school of the University of Navarra. We conducted an anonymous in situ survey of students in each year of training. Data were analyzed grouping the students as follows: GROUP 1: first three years of education, no training in Clinical Microbiology (CM) or in Infectious Diseases (ID); GROUP 2: fourth-year students, training in CM but not ID; GROUP 3: Fifth and sixth-year students who have completed the training in CM and ID. Chi-square test (or Fisher’s exact test when appropriate) was performed to evaluate potential associations. Wilcoxon’s test was used to compare the median correct answers between groups. We used Spearman’s test for correlation between year of training and performance in questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 994 students respond to the survey, 80.4% of the eligible students. Almost all students who had completed infectious diseases training perceive antibiotic resistance as an important problem in comparison with students who had not completed the formation (99.5% in group 3 vs 94.5% in group 1, p = 0.02). Knowledge of antibiotic stewardship underwent a statistically significant change after training in infectious diseases (from 9.2% in group 1 to 52.2% in group 3, p < 0.001). In the training questions block we also found an increase in the average number of correct answers (21.4% in group 1 vs 44.7% in group 3, p < 0.001). When comparing the results of subgroups 3A and 3B we found a significant loss of knowledge as we moved away from training (49% vs 40.9%, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The training of medical students is the key to improving both perception and knowledge of infectious diseases. However, we have an opportunity for educational improvement as far as infectious diseases are concerned, regarding both the acquisition of knowledge and its loss as time lapses after training. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-022-03580-8.