The general public's perceptions and use of antimicrobials in Trinidad and Tobago

• Published in: Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública
• Main Authors: Neeta Parimi, Lexley M. Pinto Pereira, Parimi Prabhakar
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish; Portuguese
• Published: Pan American Health Organization 2002
• Subjects: Antimicrobials; health education; professional education; self-medication; Caribbean; Medicine; R; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic; Trinidad
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1590/s1020-49892002000700003; https://doaj.org/article/4ecf387cc50e4ea5983c5d60e04a2d02

Objective. To determine the general public's perceptions and use of antibiotics in Trinidad and Tobago, a two-island republic in the Caribbean. Methods. This prospective study surveyed 824 randomly selected households listed in the telephone directory, from November 1998 to January 1999. Through telephone interviews we determined knowledge about antibiotics and beliefs concerning their safety and efficacy. We studied the influence of age, gender, education, and having private health insurance on knowledge, self-medication, storing medication at home for emergency use ("hoarding"), and asking a private doctor to prescribe antibiotics ("demand prescribing"). Results. For the 824 telephone calls that the interviewers completed, 753 of the households agreed to participate (91.4% response rate). Of those 753 participants, 699 of them (93%) knew the term "antibiotic," 29% (206/699) said it was a drug for bacterial infections, and 25% (170/690) had asked a doctor for an antibiotic prescription. Penicillin was correctly identified as an antibiotic across age, gender, and education categories, but 36% of respondents incorrectly said Benadryl (diphenhydramine), a common over-the-counter cough and cold formulation, was an antibiotic. Gender was not significantly associated with knowledge of antibiotic safety, with self-medication, or with hoarding antibiotics. On the other hand, completion of tertiary (university) education was significantly associated with correct knowledge of the safety of antibiotics and whether or not they could cure all infections. Of the various antimicrobials, beta-lactams were the ones that survey respondents had used most frequently in the preceding year, and 20% of antibiotics users had used multiple antibiotics in that period. In comparison to persons with private health insurance, more individuals without private health insurance said that antibiotics are safe and do not have side effects, and more of them also incorrectly called aspirin and Benadryl antibiotics. Conclusions. In Trinidad and ...