Effect of physicians' knowledge on antibiotics rational use in China's county hospitals.

BACKGROUND: Irrational prescriptions of antibiotics have received significant international attention. In China, previous studies have described the impact of physicians' knowledge on antibiotic use, however, empirical studies of the relationship between physician knowledge and antibiotic prescription behavior are limited.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine physicians' knowledge of antibiotic and explore the effects of physicians' knowledge on rational antibiotic use in county hospitals in China.

METHOD: A sample of 360 physicians from 60 county hospitals was designed. Questionnaires were used to evaluate the physicians' knowledge of antibiotic use. We assessed the rationality of antibiotic use by evaluating the physicians' prescriptions. Antibiotic prescriptions were evaluated according to percentage of encounters where an antibiotic was prescribed, percentage of encounters with combined antibiotics prescriptions and the percentage of encounters treated in accordance with a standard treatment guideline. General linear model (GLM) was performed to analyze the factors influencing rational antibiotic use.

RESULT: A total of 58,512 valid antibiotic prescriptions by 280 physicians were included in the analysis. The average score of 62.2 The average percentage of encounters with an antibiotic and combined antibiotics prescribed were 70.1% and 40.2%, respectively. 37.9% of antibiotic prescriptions were in accordance with standard treatment guidelines. GLM analysis showed that physicians with scores exceeding 80 used less antibiotics than those who score lower than 60 (P = 0.005). The percentage of combination antibiotic therapies of those who achieved scores above 80 or in the range from 60 to 80 were lower than that of physicians in low score groups (P = 0.002, P = 0.025), and higher compliance with the guidelines than those received a score below 60 (P = 0.001, P = 0.047).

CONCLUSION: Results confirmed that physicians' knowledge significantly influences rational antibiotic use. Targeted training programs to promote physicians' knowledge of antibiotic especially at county hospitals in the western regions of China are urgently needed.