Physician’s perception and practices on antimicrobial resistance in a tertiary care hospital in Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health and development concern. Antimicrobial misuse and overuse are key contributors to the emergence of drug-resistant infections.ObjectiveThe current study aimed to determine the level of perception and practices of physicians regarding AMR in a tertiary-level hospital.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingA tertiary care hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh.ParticipantsThe study included 360 physicians who worked for more than 6 months in different departments of the hospital.Primary and secondary outcome measuresPerceptions of AMR among physicians and secondary outcome measures were to find out the practices of physicians regarding AMR. The current study used 8 defined responses and 6 multiple-choice questions for scoring physicians’ perception of AMR and 12 items to score physicians’ self-reported practice regarding AMR. After converting these scores into percentages, the median split method was used to categorise them into poor and good categories.ResultsAmong 360 physicians, 51% were male, the median (IQR) age was 30 (27.0–34.0) years and 46% had private practices. More than half (52%) had a poor perception of AMR but had good practice (57%) with no significant association between perception and practice. The perception of AMR was significantly associated with age (p=0.048), years in practice (p=0.011) and AMR training (p=0.030). Physicians with private practice had 1.71 times higher odds of having a good perception of AMR (95% CI 2.07 to 2.75, p=0.026) and 2.44 times higher odds of having good practice (95% CI 1.51 to 3.94, p