Antibiotic Knowledge, Perception, and Practice of Intern Doctors in Turkey:  A Survey Study

Background: This study aimed to measure intern doctors' knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions about antibiotic treatment and determine the situation on the subject. Methods: A 34-question questionnaire was prepared for the study, and volunteers were administered the questionnaire face-to-face or via a Google form on a mobile WhatsApp application. Prospectively, 221 volunteer physicians participated in the survey, which was conducted between March 15-22, 2024 in Turkey. Results: Of the participants, 118 (53.4%) were male and 103 (46.6%) were female. The mean age (mean ± SD) was 24 years (24.46±1.83). Many participants had good antibiotic knowledge but a poor antibiotic use percentage. The knowledge that misuse of antibiotics causes resistance was quite high, and there were deficiencies in the mechanisms of resistance. The misconceptions identified were stopping treatment when the clinical condition improved, regardless of the duration, or giving treatment every time the fever was high. There was a significant and positive correlation between age level-antibiotic knowledge and age-level-resistance awareness (rs=0.190, p=0.002 and rs=0.152, p=0.007, respectively). A significant difference was also found between gender-attitude scores (p=0.004). There was a significant (rs=0.247, p=0.003) and positive correlation between antibiotic knowledge and resistance awareness, and a significant (rs=0.610, p<0.001) and positive correlation between antibiotic knowledge and attitude and perception scores. Conclusion: In order to increase the resistance awareness of the intern doctors and to decrease the wrong attitudes and perceptions, there is a need to develop social programs, practical applications, and patient-oriented practices together with some educational program curriculum changes.