Abstract

Background: Antibiotics are life-saving drugs that can lose its potency due to antimicrobial resistance. It remains a major health concern that should be sought and studied to minimize and slow the progression of antibiotic resistance. Therefore, the present study was aimed to measure the level of awareness regarding antibiotics among the Saudi population.
Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted through the year 2019 using an online form distributed through social media to collect the responses. The statistical package for the social sciences (version 21.0) was used to analyze the data.
Results: A total of 763 responses were analyzed. Females were more than males with percentages of 60.4% and 39.6%, respectively. University education was indicated by the majority of the participants (73.4%). Concerning the knowledge and attitude scoring system, only 10.4% scored a good level of knowledge, 40.8% were in the moderate level of knowledge group and 48.9% had a poor level of knowledge. Age was significantly associated with knowledge score (p = 0.021) Furthermore, the living region significantly was associated with awareness scores (p = 0.000).
Conclusion: The level of awareness regarding antibiotics use in Saudi Arabia was found to be low with only 10.4% of the subjects who scored a good level of knowledge. Age was found to affect knowledge significantly (p = 0.021). Hereby, we recommend implanting educational programs to raise awareness and conducting similar studies to measure the effectiveness of the educational plans.

Key words: Awareness, antibiotics, knowledge, resistance, Saudi Arabia.