Background: Antimicrobial (AM) stewardship (AMS) is an application that promotes the correct use of AMs, improves patient outcomes, inhibits microbial resistance, and decreases infections diffusion caused by multidrug-resistant organisms. Misuse of AMs is one of the worlds most common health problems. Infectious microorganisms adapt to the antibiotics designed to kill them, making the drugs ineffective. AM resistance results in more extended, more expensive hospital stay, and may cause death as a result of an infection. The aim of the current study was to assess pharmacists knowledge, perception, and practices toward AMS in community pharmacy settings of Saudi Arabia.
Methodology: A cross-sectional study was performed among community pharmacists in Saudi Arabia in 2018, using a self-administered, pre-tested questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22.0. Descriptive statistics, percentages, and medians were used to analyze the data.
Results: Our study included 500 pharmacists, the majority were male (78%), with age range from 20 to ≥50, and the majority of them had a bachelor degree of pharmacy and 18% had master degree. Almost one-half (55%) of the pharmacists in this study had less than a year of experience, one-quarter of them had 14 years of experience, however, 12% of them had more than 10years of experience. Community pharmacists knowledge about antibiotics was good (3.7). Their perceptions of AMS were very good [4.5 (0.5)], while they had acceptable [2.5 (1)] score in practices of AMS.
Conclusion: The knowledge of our participant pharmacists about antibiotics is good. Their perceptions regarding AMS are very good, while their practices are acceptable.
Key words: Antimicrobial stewardship, community pharmacists, antibiotics, antimicrobial resistance.
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