Abstract
Background Overuse or misuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics appeared to be a major cause of increased antibiotic resistance. This study aimed to explore awareness and knowledge of antibiotic prescribing and resistance among hospital physicians in Medina, Saudi Arabia. Methodology A cross-sectional study was conducted among 223 physicians in seven public hospitals in Medina, Saudi Arabia. A validated self-administered questionnaire was used, including questions on sociodemographics, awareness about the current scope of antibiotic resistance, knowledge and frequency of antibiotic prescribing, confidence and input seeking, factors influencing antibiotic prescribing, and attitude toward antibiotic use. t-Test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were used to compare total knowledge scores across the sociodemographic variables. The level of significance was set at 0.05. Results Most participants were aware that antibiotic resistance is a problem in Saudi Arabia (87.4%) and worldwide (93.3%). The majority of physicians (77.6%) were classified as having moderate knowledge, the mean knowledge score on antibiotics was 4.41, and 26.5% of the respondents prescribed antibiotics more than once daily. Most physicians (91.4%) were confident in antibiotic prescribing, and 94.1% of them consulted (at least sometimes) colleagues before prescribing. Factors associated with knowledge were age (P = 0.001), educational level (P = 0.002), working years (P = 0.004), current position (P = 0.003), specialty (P = 0.023), duration since graduation from medical school (P = 0.002), and duration since the last qualification (P = 0.022). Conclusions The majority of physicians had a moderate knowledge level of antibiotics, and most of them were prescribing antibiotics more than two times per week. Most respondents agreed that antimicrobial resistance is a worldwide concern and that it is a problem in Saudi Arabia. This study recommends training and courses on the fact that appropriate antibiotic prescribing should be ensured to have the best practice in antibiotic prescription among physicians.