Perspective of community pharmacists about community-based antimicrobial stewardship programs. A multicenter cross-sectional study from China

ABSTRACT

Background: Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are commonly used worldwide to tackle antimicrobial resistance. The current study aimed to investigate the perspective of pharmacists on community-based ASPs in China.

Methods: A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted in the capital cities of three different provinces of China between March 2019 and July 2019. A systematic random sampling method was used to recruit respondents.

Results: A response rate of 87.4% (416/476) was obtained. A large number of respondents (n = 308, 74.0%) believed that ASPs are vital to improving patient care (Median = 4, IQR = 2). Approximately one-third of the respondents (n = 142, 34.1%) always ask patients about their knowledge related to antimicrobials (Median = 4, IQR = 2). Additionally, a considerable number of respondents (n = 127, 30.5%) always, or often (n = 117, 28.1%) collaborated with other healthcare professionals (Median = 4, IQR = 2). Age, gender, and experience were observed to have a significant association (p < 0.05) with median scores of knowledge about antibiotics, perceptions, and practices on ASPs.

Conclusions: The perceptions of pharmacists regarding ASPs were positive. However, gaps in knowledge about some aspects of antibiotics and participation in ASPs were found. The development of regional community-based ASPs is urgently required.

KEYWORDS:

• Antimicrobial stewardship
• antimicrobial resistance
• antibiotics
• community pharmacists
• practices
• China

Article highlights

• This study highlighted the views of community pharmacists about community-based antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) in China.

• In some aspects, pharmacists had good knowledge about antibiotics, as most of them (80.3%) were aware that normal flora could be killed by using antibiotics. However, less than half of the pharmacists (45.7%) were not known that the course of antibiotics should be completed even if the symptoms disappear.

• The community-based ASPs were found to be useful to enhance patient care by a large number of pharmacists (74.0%). More than 90% of the pharmacists were of the view that pharmacists should attend workshops and conferences pointed towards ASPs.

• The majority of the pharmacists (78.4%) were involved in the screening of an antimicrobial prescription. However, their engagement in antimicrobial campaigns was not optimal.

• Development of regional community-based ASP guidelines for community coupled with training of pharmacists is of urgent need.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to all the community pharmacists who participated in this study. A note of thanks to all data collectors who completed the fieldwork and data collection for this project.

Author contributions

KH and PL made substantial contributions to the study design, data analysis, interpretation of results, and the drafting of the paper. MR and YF drafted the manuscript and critically revised it. SJ, SX, FUK, JC, LI, AC, AHG, and MRS helped in data entry and data analysis.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was funded by the National Natural Science Fund (71974156), ‘Young Talent Support Plan,’ ‘High Achiever Plan’ of Health Science Center, Xi’an Jiaotong University, and the Central University Basic Research Fund (2015qngz05).