Knowledge and Application of Antibiotics in the Everyday Life of Students at the Faculty of Health Science

: Antibiotics constitute a group of medications used to treat infections caused by bacteria and their colonization. A casual understanding of the importance of rational antibiotic use results in antimicrobial resistance, leading to the ineffectiveness of the drug when it is most needed. Today, a pressing issue is bacterial resistance to antibiotics, one of the reasons being poor antibiotic management and insufficient knowledge about them. The purpose and objective of this research were to assess the knowledge and use of antibiotics among students of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sarajevo. This study involved 151 students, including 125 females (83%) and 26 males (17%). The survey comprised questions about general data on the significance and use of antibiotics. The importance of understanding antibiotics and knowing how to use them for specific problems is discussed in Chapter 3. of this scientific research paper.


Introduction:-
Antibiotics are toxic to bacteria, yet non-toxic or minimally toxic to the human organism.They exert their action on bacterial cells by inhibiting or halting the growth and replication of the bacteria themselves (Nogueira-Uzal et al., 2020).Failure to eradicate the bacteria leads to bacteriostatic effects, while bacterial destruction is termed bactericidal action.According to their mechanism of action, antibiotics are categorized into: those inducing cell wall inhibition (Penicillin, Ampicillin, Carbenicillin, Cephalosporin, Vancomycin, Cycloserine), antibiotics inhibiting protein synthesis (Streptomycin, Gentamicin), antibiotics inducing nucleic acid synthesis (

IDK-I don't know; CD-I completely disagree; PD-I partially disagree; N/A-Neither agree nor disagree; PA-I partially agree; CA-I completely agre
In Table 3.The results of responses from respondents who have taken antibiotics in the previous 30 days are presented.Approximately 85,3% of respondents completely agree that they took antibiotics as prescribed by a doctor, while a smaller number completely disagree (3,3%), partially disagree (0,7%), and neither agree nor disagree (2,7%).Regarding taking antibiotics according to the instructions received in the antibiotic package, 52% of respondents completely agree, while 20% partially agree.About 76% of respondents completely agree that they read the expiration date on the antibiotic package, while a larger number also hold the opinion that they completely disagree with the given statement (10%).Regarding receiving antibiotics exclusively according to the instructions of their general practitioners, 73,8% of respondents (110) completely agreed, while a smaller number of 13,4% (20 respondents) hold a different opinion, while the largest number, 89,9% of respondents (134), completely disagree that they obtained antibiotics from their friends/family members, with a smaller number of respondents expressing slightly different opinions: 4% neither agree nor disagree, 3,4% partially agree, and 2% completely-agree .

IDK-I don't know; CD-I completely disagree; PD-I partially disagree; N/A-Neither agree nor disagree; PA-I partially agree; CA-I completely agre
Discussion:-Antibiotics represent preparations capable of destroying bacteria or inhibiting their colonization.Today, antibiotics are also referred to as antibacterial or antimicrobial drugs, essentially all being antibiotics with variations in their mechanisms of action and chemical structures.Numerous literary sources discuss the knowledge and use of antibiotics among students of related professions, such as medical, dental, and natural sciences.According to Glavaš (2021), undergraduate students from various fields, including medical, expressed their opinions, knowledge, and handling of antibiotics.Out of 731 students surveyed, a staggering 40.2% had taken antibiotics without a prescription in the last 6 months.Moreover, over half of the students (56.5%) stored antibiotics past their expiration dates.During self-administration of antibiotics, approximately 16.7% of students experienced adverse effects, while 30.6% used antibiotics for minor ailments like the common cold.Additionally, Pilipović (2022) stated in their study that about 64% of dental faculty respondents had used antibiotics in the past year, with 50% having done so one to two times.A significant proportion (74%) of respondents correctly answered questions regarding antibiotic use, yet a concerning 15% of students self-medicated with antibiotics, often due to high fever.According to the literature cited in the study by Di Gennaro et al. (2020), medical faculty students (studying medicine, nursing, health professions, and dental medicine) were surveyed regarding antibiotic use and knowledge.Among the 1050 students surveyed, around 20% believed antibiotics could treat viral infections, while 15% stated they stopped taking antibiotics when their illness symptoms began to diminish.This study revealed that women were more likely to take antibiotics only when prescribed by a doctor, while students with family members working in healthcare were more prone to taking non-prescribed antibiotics.Based on the discussion of the data and research findings, it is evident that there is insufficient discourse about antibiotics, and knowledge and usage of antibiotics are low, both among students not in the healthcare domain and others.There is a need for greater education among students regarding the significance of antibiotic use, its consumption, and potential contraindications.

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Shahpawee, N. S., Chaw, L. L., Muharram, S. H., Goh, H. P., Hussain, Z., Ming, L. C. (2020).University students' antibiotic use and knowledge of antimicrobial resistance: what are the common myths?.Antibiotics, 9(6), 349.Open Access This article is licensedunder a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.The images or other thirdparty material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material.If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Table 1 . Analysis of responses to general knowledge questions about antibiotics
IDK-I don't know; CD-I completely disagree; PD-I partially disagree; N/A-Neither agree nor disagree; PA-I partially agree; CA-I completely agre International Journal of Medical Science and Clinical Invention, vol.11, Issue 03, March 2024

Table 2 .
Analysis of student responses related to antimicrobial resistance

Table 3 . Antibiotic use in the previous 30 days according to respondents' answer
International Journal of Medical Science and Clinical Invention, vol.11, Issue 03, March 2024 Pilipović, N. (2022).Usporedna Studija Znanja o Antibioticima Među Studentima Stomatoloških Fakulteta u Zagrebu i Beogradu (Doctoral dissertation, University of Zagreb.School of Dental Medicine.Chair of Pharmacology).