Factors associated with the Antibiotic Usage Behaviour of the Village Health Volunteers in Chang Klang District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province

Abstract

The cross-sectional analytical study aims to determine the knowledge and attitudes towards antibiotic usage. Examine the behaviour and related factors of antibiotic usage among village health volunteers (VHV) in Chang Klang District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province. The 281 samples were gathered by a simple random sampling method. Data was collected by questionnaire with an IOC value between 0.67 and 1.00. The knowledge questionnaire had a KR-20 value of 0.74. Regarding attitudes and antibiotic usage behaviours, they had Cronbach's alpha coefficients of 0.79 and 0.84, respectively. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression statistics. The results showed that nearly half of VHV had good knowledge 45.9%, more than half of them had a moderate attitude level towards antibiotics 62.4%, and they had appropriate usage of antibiotics 63.1%. Regarding the related factors of their behaviour, it was found that female VHV have a 0.25 times greater chance of having appropriate behaviour than males. Moreover, the VHV with an income of more than 10,000 baht has a 71.0% chance of decreasing the appropriate behaviour compared to those with an income of ≤ 10,000 baht. Moreover, the VHV with average and good knowledge about antibiotics will have a 2.79 and 3.74 times greater chance of having appropriate behaviour than those with a low knowledge level. Therefore, the public health staff should organise training programmes on the reasonable use of antibiotics for VHV to be a role model of the appropriate usage of antibiotics and encourage a good attitude towards antibiotics.