Evaluation of the knowledge and attitudes of emergency department physicians on rational antibiotic use in Aydin province

Rational use use of antibiotics allows to prevent the development of antibiotic resistance, to reduce the side effects of antibiotics, to decrease the complication rates due to infectious diseases, and to prevent the chronicity of diseases.The emergency department is the area where the correct diagnosis of common infectious diseases has to be made quickly and empirical antibiotic treatment has to started to cover the microorganisms that cause those infections. This study was conducted to evaluate the knowlegde and attitudes of physicians who work in emergency department on rational antibiotic use. 72 physicians who work in emergency department in Aydın province particiated in the study.The questionnaire applied for data collection consists of three parts. In the first part, there are questions evaluating the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, in the second part their knowledge about rational antibiotic use, in the third part their attitudes about rational antibiotic use . A total of 72 physicians, 27 (37,5%) women and 45 (62,5%) men, took part in our study voluntarily. The mean age was found to be 30,5. 48 (66,7%) physicians stated that they received training on rational antibiotic use, and 24 (33,3%) physicans did not receive any training.The three infectious diseases for which participants were unable to prescribe appropriate antibiotics after diagnosis were acute bacterial meningitis, hospital acquired pneumonia and acute sinusitis.There was no statistically significant difference between general practitioners and specialist physicians in terms of prescribing appropriate antibiotics for these diseases. As a result of our study, we think that emergency physicians working in Aydın have insufficient knowledge about rational antibiotic use, therefore they should be trained at regular intervals on rational antibiotic use before and after graduation. Keywords: Rational use of antibiotics, emergency department, postgraduate education