The risks of antibiotic resistance have long been recognized, and public health organizations have made significant efforts to help us avoid growing antibiotic resistance through public education campaigns that tend to emphasize how misuse of antibiotics can harm society. However, there has been little research into the effectiveness of most of these campaigns, and there remains little understanding of what messages related to antibiotic resistance are most likely to influence patient preferences related to antibiotics.

A new study, published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine has shown that rather than focus on the effects as the societal level, education programs aimed at reducing demand for antibiotics should instead focus on the threat antibiotic misuse poses to individual patients. The authors of the study used a survey administered through a primary care clinic in Baltimore, MD to gather data from 250 people. These people rated statements about antibiotics and their potential harms in terms of how these statements may affect their chances of asking a physician or advanced provider for antibiotics to treat an upper respiratory tract infection. The survey questions emphasized potential harms for the individual, for their close contacts, and to society.

The results showed that while statements in all categories of potential harm reduced patients’ likelihood for requesting antibiotics, statements that specifically focused on how misuse of antibiotics could harm the individual or their contacts were significantly more effective in reducing the subjects’ reported willingness to seek out antibiotics for an upper respiratory tract infection. In addition, data collected through this study showed that focusing on antibiotic resistance was associated with less of a reduction in likelihood to request antibiotics than when statements avoided discussion of antibiotic resistance.

Based on these findings, the authors of the current study concluded that as part of their efforts to dissuade patients from asking for non-indicated antibiotics, public health campaigns and healthcare providers supporting public health should focus their messaging on the negative effects on the individual they are speaking to rather than on societal-level effects or the potential harms of antibiotic resistance. More research in this area will help us refine our understanding of how specific messaging can improve the influence of public health campaigns and lower the misuse of antibiotics to help us avoid growing antibiotic resistance.

Reference

Miller, Carson, & Keller. (2020). Educating patients on unnecessary antibiotics: Personalizing potential harm aids patient understanding. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 33(6), 969-977.