Effect of Educational Intervention on Prescription of Antibiotics by General Dentists in Qom, Iran

Abstract

Background and Objectives:  Irrational use of antibiotics is one of the concerns in dentistry due to causing antimicrobial resistance and imposing cost burden on the patients. This study aims to evaluate the effect of educational intervention on prescription of antibiotics by general dentists in Qom, Iran. Methods: This study was conducted for three months on 134 general dentists in Qom province  in two groups of intervention (n=67) and control (n=67). The intervention group participated in a seminar as a retraining course. Descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation, percentage, and frequency were used to describe the data, and chi-square test was used to compare the two groups. Results: The data of 22418 prescriptions containing antibiotics were evaluated. The mean number of prescriptions in the intervention group before and after retraining was 62.73 and 72.92, respectively (P= 0.043), indicating a significant increase after retraining. The mean number of prescriptions in the control group before and after retraining was 96.88 and 100.06, respectively but there was no significant difference (P= 0.57). There was no significant difference in the number of prescriptions between the two groups after retraining (P=0.09). Conclusion: The educational intervention is relatively unsuccessful may be due to lack of motivation, lack of useful and effective teaching methods, and lack of participation in group discussions