Impact of Infectious Diseases Training in the Perception of Antibiotic Resistance and Rational Use of Antibiotics Among Spanish Medical Students. A Case-Control Study

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is one of the main public health problems worldwide. A key tool to optimize antibiotic prescription is medical training.

The aim of this study is to compare the impact of training in infectious diseases in the knowledge of the antibiotic resistance problem and the rationale use of antibiotics. We performed a case-control study in the medical school of the University of Navarra, one of the top private Universities in Spain. We conducted an anonymous presential survey of students in each year of formation.

Data were analyzed grouping the students: GROUP 1: first three years of education. They have not trained in Clinical Microbiology (CM) neither in Infectious Diseases (ID); GROUP 2: fourth-year students; they have training in CM but not ID; GROUP 3: Fifth and sixth-year students; they have completed the training in CM and ID.

A total of 994 students answered the survey, 80.4% of the eligible students. Almost all students who have completed infectious diseases formation perceive antibiotic resistance as a relevant problem in comparation with students who did not complete the formation (99.5% in group 3 vs 94.5% in group 1, p=0.02).

Knowledge of antibiotic stewardship statistically significant change with infectious diseases formation (from 9.2% in group 1 to 52.2% in group 3, p<0.001). In the training questions block we also found an increase in the average of the correct answers (21.4% in group 1 vs 44.7% in group 3, p<0.001). When comparing the results of subgroups 3A and 3B we found a significant loss of knowledge as we move away from training (49% vs 40.9%, p<0.001).

The training of medical students is key both to improve the perception and knowledge of infectious diseases. However, we have an opportunity to educational improvement in infectious diseases in both the acquisition of knowledge and its loss when we move away from training.

CITA DEL ARTÍCULO  BMC Medical Education