Knowledge and confidence on prescribing antibiotics among medical graduates from a Sri Lankan university

Inappropriate antimicrobial prescription is the main contributory factor to rapidly growing antibiotic resistance. This cross-sectional study was done to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of antibiotic use among medical graduates at the University of Peradeniya using an online questionnaire.

The medical graduates rated their education in cardiology to be ‘sufficient’ or ‘more than sufficient’ compared to infectious diseases and antimicrobials (p<0.05). Confidence in diagnostics was higher than therapeutics in infectious diseases. Most were aware of local antimicrobial guidelines but nearly half (46.1%) believed these were used less than 50% in the clinical setting. The average knowledge score was 57.5% and participants scored well (>75%) in deciding when not to use antibiotics and scored less (<50%) in therapeutics of less common infections.

Poor knowledge and confidence amongst medical graduates were observed in antimicrobial prescribing. Antibiotic stewardship should be emphasized in medical curricula to improve the prescribing practice among doctors.