EVALUATION OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE DANGEROUS EFFECT OF EXCESSIVE USE OF ANTIBIOTICS IN ASIR CITY.

Antibiotics excessive and abusive use is associated with increased resistance and complications that have been well recognized worldwide in the literature. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess knowledge, behavior and attitude toward antibiotics use among residents of 'Asir region. Method: Our study was carried out among a sample of 409 residents in Asir region. To reach our goal and in order to collect the necessary informations, consenting residents responded to a questionnaire and the descriptive approach was employed in data and facts collection, classification and tabulation. Results: The sample is consisted of 65,8% women and 34,2% men. The sample of individuals was distributedaccording to age, gender and educational level.Our study showed that(46.7%)of sample individuals are taking antibiotics without doctor's advice. Among the respondents, (38,4%) do not usually complete the course of antibiotics, however, (69,9%) of sample individuals do believe that the bacterial resistance to antibiotics appears in a case of an uncompleted antibiotic course.The majority of respondents (59.4 %) of sample individuals are often taking the antibiotics by doctor, yet,(10.5%) of sample individuals are taking the antibiotics often by themselves and (9.3 %) of sample individuals said that common cold drives them to buy and take antibiotics. The majority of sample individuals (35.5 %) believe that the period in which they define treatment failure in their opinion is ranging from one day to three days; also, (35.7%) of respondents do not know what are the risks and complications of antibiotics and (76.5 %) review their doctor in the case of treatment failure.