Knowledge, attitude, and practice on antibiotics use among healthcare workers: A cross-sectional study in Niger state, Nigeria.

Introduction: Antibiotic resistance is a public health concern in Nigeria and the world, and healthcare workers contributed to the upsurge of antibiotic resistance in hospital settings. This study focused on the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of antibiotic use and the frequency of prescriptions of antibiotics from the list of WHO Model Essentials Antibiotics (AWaRe) (in the last 6 months) among healthcare workers and established the determining factors in six hospitals in Niger state, Nigeria.

Methodology: A KAP survey was conducted in Niger State, Nigeria, from March to June 2022. A structured self-administered, pretested questionnaire was distributed to six hospitals in the state following a stratified random sampling considering the staff capacity, the population of the city, and patients' patronage.

Results: A total of 350 questionnaires distributed, and 313 (89.4%) completed and returned from the six hospitals. The median scores were knowledge (75%), attitude (69%), practice (62%), and self-reported prescription (70%), and respondents with good scores were knowledge [195 (62.3%)], attitude [185 (59.1%)], practice [201 (64.2%)], and prescription [117 (37.4%)]. In multivariate analysis, older respondents are more likely to have a good prescription (p = 0.006), and prior antimicrobial training improved their knowledge (p < 0.001), attitude (p = 0.007), and prescription pattern (p = 0.009). All the study participants had prescribed one or more of the most prescribed antibiotics; Amoxicillin clavulanate (Access group, 96.5%), Amoxicillin (Access group, 95.9%), and Metronidazole (Access group, 95.7%).

Conclusions: The study suggests that antibiotic education for healthcare workers and antimicrobial stewardship programs are significant interventions to mitigate antibiotic overuse in the state.