Knowledge and perception of antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial stewardship among healthcare students in Nigeria

Background: Assessment of knowledge and perception of healthcare students regarding antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) would facilitate more effective education of these future prescribers.

Objectives: To assess knowledge and perception of AMR and AMS among healthcare students in Nigerian universities.

Methods: This was a questionnaire-based, cross-sectional survey of medical, nursing and pharmacy undergraduate students from November 2019 to January 2020, using both paper and electronic modes of self-administration.

Results: A total of 335 students participated in the survey. Mean age of respondents was 23±3 years; 114 (34.4%) were in their 5th year of study. Most (78.9%) of the respondents agreed that widespread use of antimicrobials promotes AMR. Only 70 (21.1%) were aware that poor hand hygiene promotes AMR; 45.9% (42.7%, 37.3% and 57.7% for medicine, nursing and pharmacy respectively, p = 0.007) agreed that AMR is promoted by substandard quality of antimicrobials. Majority (94.3%) perceived AMR as a worldwide problem. Over half (60.8%) were not familiar with the term 'antimicrobial stewardship'. Eleven (3.3%) and 122 (36.9%) rated their AMS knowledge as 'very good' and 'poor' respectively.

Conclusions: Nigerian healthcare students had suboptimal knowledge of AMR and AMS. Current undergraduate healthcare curriculum should be reviewed to incorporate AMS principles.