Knowledge, attitude, and behaviour toward antibiotics among Hong Kong people: local-born versus immigrants.

The World Health Organization marked “Antimicrobial resistance: no action today, no cure tomorrow” as the theme of World Health Day 2011. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an urgent global threat.1 The misuse of antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) is a main cause of AMR. Local studies showed that 237 (23.7%) of 1002 interviewed citizens were prescribed antibiotics for their last URTI2; 27.5% of consultations for URTI ended with antibiotics3; and 33.9% of primary care doctors prescribed antibiotics for >40% of URTI consultations.4 Some doctors reported that their patients expected antibiotics,4 and at least 26% of patients required antibiotics when they consulted doctors for URTI.2 Patient knowledge, attitude, and behaviour toward the use of antibiotics might not only affect whether an antibiotic is prescribed appropriately but also how it is consumed. Cultural and economic factors also affect antibiotic use.5 There was one such study in Hong Kong, but it was limited by the small number (n=12) of questions, a restrictive scoring system, and a 14% response rate.2 We aimed to investigate the public’s knowledge, attitude, and behaviour toward antibiotics in both local-born and immigrant populations.