Comparison of the knowledge, attitudes and practice with antibiotic use between traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine usual attenders in Hong Kong

Background: Patients who usually attend Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) need to go to western medicine (WM) doctors for antibiotics in Hong Kong. They might have different knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) with antibiotics from the WM-attenders.

Objective: This study compares TCM attenders with the WM-attenders in Hong Kong about their KAP with antibiotics. The comparison could help future campaigns/education on appropriate antibiotic use.

Design and setting: A questionnaire on KAP with antibiotics was designed after eight focus groups of purposively selected participants. A territory-wide telephone survey then interviewed randomly selected residents who were aged 18 years or above and spoke the local dialect.

Result: Of 2471 respondents, 270 and 2092 usually attended TCM and WM, respectively. Majority of both the TCM- and WM-attenders preferred doctors who were judicious in prescribing antibiotics and seldom asked for them. The TCM-attenders were significantly more likely to be female and with lower household income. They were also more likely to agree that antibiotics were not useful for upper respiratory tract infections and that antibiotic resistance was a serious local problem. They were less likely to accept or be treated with antibiotics. The TCM-attenders were also more concerned about the side-effects of antibiotics. However, they were also less likely than the WM-attenders to always finish a full course of antibiotic.

Conclusion: Apart from non-compliance, the TCM-attenders' KAP with antibiotics favour the appropriate use of antibiotics.