Antibiotic Use Practices Among Residents of Yenagoa Metropolis: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Antibiotics have been subject to misuse, which is considered to be a key factor in the development of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, resulting in complications in patients.To understand the practices associated with antibiotic use and resistance in the Yenagoa metropolis, a descriptive cross-sectional survey was used to investigate the common practices relating to antibiotic use and resistance among 408 residents of randomly selected communities in the Yenagoa metropolis.A structured questionnaire was used to collect the field data, which was then analyzed using IBM SPSS version 27 and Microsoft Excel (version 2013).The results of this study showed that cough was reported as the most common condition for which respondents use antibiotics, and 25.7% of respondents reported that they always obtain antibiotics with a prescription, with pharmacy being the most common source from where they get their antibiotics.Also, 83.33% reported that they get information about antibiotics from a healthcare professional.It was recommended that the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria restrict Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors to only stock antibiotics as provided in the essential medicines list.