Tanzanian primary healthcare workers' experiences of antibiotic prescription and understanding of antibiotic resistance in common childhood infections: a qualitative phenomenographic study

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Emgård, Matilda
Mwangi, Rose
Mayo, Celina
Mshana, Ester
Nkini, Gertrud
Andersson, Rune
Msuya, Sia E
Lepp, Margret
Muro, Florida
Skovbjerg, Susann
Griffith University Author(s)
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2021
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Antibiotic resistance is a threat to global child health. Primary healthcare workers play a key role in antibiotic stewardship in the community, but few studies in low-income countries have described their experiences of initiating antibiotic treatment in children. Thus, the present study aimed to describe primary healthcare workers' experiences of antibiotic prescription for children under 5 years of age and their conceptions of antibiotic resistance in Northern Tanzania. METHODS: A qualitative study involving individual in-depth interviews with 20 prescribing primary healthcare workers in Moshi urban and rural districts, Northern Tanzania, was performed in 2019. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, translated from Kiswahili into English and analysed according to the phenomenographic approach. FINDINGS: Four conceptual themes emerged during the analysis; conceptions in relation to the prescriber, the mother and child, other healthcare actors and in relation to outcome. The healthcare workers relied mainly on clinical examination and medical history provided by the mother to determine the need for antibiotics. Confidence in giving advice concerning non-antibiotic treatment varied among the participants and expectations of antibiotic treatment were perceived to be common among the mothers. Antibiotic resistance was mainly perceived as a problem for the individual patient who was misusing the antibiotics. CONCLUSIONS: To increase rational antibiotic prescription, an awareness needs to be raised among Tanzanian primary healthcare workers of the threat of antibiotic resistance, not only to a few individuals, but to public health. Guidelines on childhood illnesses should be updated with advice concerning symptomatic treatment when antibiotics are not necessary, to support rational prescribing practices and promote trust in the clinician and mother relationship.

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Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control

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10

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1

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© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

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Paediatrics

Reproductive medicine

Microbiology

Clinical sciences

Medical microbiology

Pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences

Antimicrobial stewardship

Bacterial

Drug prescribing

Drug resistance

Phenomenography

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Emgård, M; Mwangi, R; Mayo, C; Mshana, E; Nkini, G; Andersson, R; Msuya, SE; Lepp, M; Muro, F; Skovbjerg, S, Tanzanian primary healthcare workers' experiences of antibiotic prescription and understanding of antibiotic resistance in common childhood infections: a qualitative phenomenographic study, Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control, 2021, 10 (1), pp. 94

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