Peer-education as a tool to educate on antibiotics, resistance and use in 16-18-year-olds: a feasibility study

McNulty, Cliodna A. M., Syeda, Rowshonara B., Brown, Carla L., Bennett, C. Verity ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9311-4124, Schofield, Behnaz, Allison, David G., Verlander, Neville Q. and Francis, Nick 2020. Peer-education as a tool to educate on antibiotics, resistance and use in 16-18-year-olds: a feasibility study. Antibiotics 9 (4) , 146. 10.3390/antibiotics9040146

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Abstract

Peer education (PE) interventions may help improve knowledge and appropriate use of antibiotics in young adults. In this feasibility study, health-care students were trained to educate 16–18 years old biology students, who then educated their non-biology peers, using e-Bug antibiotic lessons. Knowledge was assessed by questionnaires, and antibiotic use by questionnaire, SMS messaging and GP record searches. Five of 17 schools approached participated (3 PE and 2 control (usual lessons)). 59% (10/17) of university students and 28% (15/54) of biology students volunteered as peer-educators. PE was well-received; 30% (38/127) intervention students and 55% (66/120) control students completed all questionnaires. Antibiotic use from GP medical records (54/136, 40% of students’ data available), student SMS (69/136, 51% replied) and questionnaire (109/136, 80% completed) data showed good agreement between GP and SMS (kappa = 0.72), but poor agreement between GP and questionnaires (kappa = 0.06). Median knowledge scores were higher post-intervention, with greater improvement for non-biology students. Delivering and evaluating e-Bug PE is feasible with supportive school staff. Single tiered PE by university students may be easier to regulate and manage due to time constraints on school students. SMS collection of antibiotic data is easier and has similar accuracy to GP data.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Publisher:	MDPI
ISSN:	2079-6382
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	5 May 2020
Date of Acceptance:	23 March 2020
Last Modified:	06 May 2023 00:40
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/131468

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