Abstract
We investigated sociocultural and economic drivers of human antimicrobial use (AMU) in Thailand through ethnographic research, interviews, focus groups and a cross-sectional survey. This community-based study generated findings clustered around three key themes: treatment-seeking practices, medicine use, and interpretation of biomedical constructs. Participants sought care from public health facilities for chronic conditions, but medicines from the private sector were considered more powerful and were preferred for acute complaints. Many antibiotics were unrecognised as such by consumers due to the practice at private healthcare facilities of dispensing repackaged medicines without identifying labels. This unseen use of antibiotics is probably driven by economic drivers including market competition in the private sector, policy implementation drivers whereby rational drug use policies mainly target the public sector, behavioural drivers relating to treatment seeking-practices, and sociocultural drivers that influenced participants’ understanding of medical terms and concepts. Participants regarded antibiotics as reducing inflammation and were uncertain about the distinctions between anti-inflammatories, antibiotics, and pain relievers. Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) was understood as a form of drug tolerance to be remedied by changing the medicine. Community surveys may not provide accurate estimates of AMU where people are unable to distinguish antibiotics reliably from other medicines.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2298940 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Global Public Health |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 8 Jan 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank all the community members who participated in this study and the village health volunteers who helped in the recruitment process. We thank the 10 graduate anthropology students of Mahidol University who help collecting data for the medicine use survey. We thank the wider study group of the OH-DART project for useful discussion https://www.bristol.ac.uk/amr/research/understanding-the-drivers-of-amr-in-a-one-health-context-/antibacterial-resistance-in-thailand/ . We are grateful to the Cross Council Initiative supported by the seven United Kingdom research councils and the National Institute for Health Research for funding this study and for Mahidol University, Thailand for hosting the study.
Funding Information:
This work was funded by grant MR/S004769/1 from the Antimicrobial Resistance Cross Council Initiative supported by the seven United Kingdom research councils and the National Institute for Health Research. Ms Nutcha Charoenboon is a PhD student funded by University of Bristol. We thank all the community members who participated in this study and the village health volunteers who helped in the recruitment process. We thank the 10 graduate anthropology students of Mahidol University who help collecting data for the medicine use survey. We thank the wider study group of the OH-DART project for useful discussion https://www.bristol.ac.uk/amr/research/understanding-the-drivers-of-amr-in-a-one-health-context-/antibacterial-resistance-in-thailand/. We are grateful to the Cross Council Initiative supported by the seven United Kingdom research councils and the National Institute for Health Research for funding this study and for Mahidol University, Thailand for hosting the study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.