Inappropriate use of antibiotics among communities of Gondar town, Ethiopia: a threat to the development of antimicrobial resistance

The emergence of antimicrobial resistance, the main cause of morbidity and mortality from otherwise treatable infections, is largely attributed to the inappropriate use of antimicrobials. However, data on the extent of inappropriate use of antibiotics in the community is scarce in Ethiopia. The aim of present study is to document the extent of inappropriate use of antibiotics and its associated factors among the communities of Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia.

A community based cross-sectional survey was conducted on a total of 650 participants in Gondar town, northwest Ethiopia from December 1, 2016 to January 30, 2017. Descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were also performed to express different variables and to examine factors associated with inappropriate use of antibiotics.

According to the finding of our study, 315 (48.5%) of the participants took antibiotics in the past 1 year, of which 115 (35.9%) of them used inappropriately. Amoxicillin (72%) was the most commonly utilized antibiotics and respiratory tract infection (40.9%) was the most common disease condition to which antibiotics had been sought. About 36.8% of the respondents got antibiotics from community drug retail outlets without a prescription and 67.9% of respondents had discontinued the use of antibiotics once their symptoms subside. Low educational status (AOR = 5.01, 95% CI = 2.62–9.34), being employed (AOR = 2.12, 95% CI = 1.81–7.29) and unsatisfied with health care services provided (AOR = 5.41, 95% CI = 2.71-14.21) were found to be strong predictors of inappropriate use of antibiotics use among the community.

Inappropriate use of antibiotics was found to be considerably high in the communities of Gondar, northwest Ethiopia. Taking into consideration the heightened importance of comprehensive knowledge in the rational use of antibiotics, different stakeholders working in the public health sectors should provide a comprehensive and customized education to the public so as to improve their knowledge about antibiotics. It is also essential to adopt a strong and explicit line of actions towards the accessibility of antibiotics without a valid prescription in community medicine retail outlets.