Abstract

Background: Inappropriate and excessive use of antibiotics is associated with an increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance. The present study investigated the role of knowledge and use of antibiotics toward Upper Respiratory Tract Infections (URTIs) across the population of Saudi Arabia under the general objective of understanding the knowledge, attitude, and practice toward antibiotics use in respiratory tract infections among adult Saudi population, Saudi Arabia, 2018-2019.
Methodology: A randomized cross-sectional study was conducted among the adult Saudi population. Data were gathered by using specific designed electronic questionnaires translated to Arabic with close-ended multiple- choice questions to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice toward antibiotics use in respiratory tract infection. The final sample size was 725. The questionnaire was divided into two key parts. The analysis was carried out using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 25, where significance was allowed at a 5% level.
Results: Among the study subjects, 13.1% were smokers, while the rest were non-smokers. More than 90% of the study respondents claimed to have some background information about antibiotics. A higher proportion of males reported being affected by the respiratory disease at least once as compared to the proportion of females. Laryngitis was the most common type of URTI at 59%. There was no significant association between knowledge that antibiotics cure bacterial infections, and the criteria used to stop using antibiotics (p-value > 0.05).
Conclusion: The knowledge about antibiotics could be considered misleading among the Saudi population due to the high number of respondents with misconceptions about the antibiotics being the cure for the viral disease when to stop using antibiotics, and unprofessional prescription of anti-biotic in curing URTIs.

Key words: Knowledge, attitude, practice, antibiotic use, upper respiratory tract infections