Knowledge of the French public on antibiotics: where do we stand, twenty years after the celebrated public health campaign "Antibiotics are not Automatic"?

INTRODUCTION: Antibiotic misuse is a global threat and a public health priority. In 2002, France launched what has, up until now, been the best marketing campaign on antibiotics addressed to the general public.

PATIENTS AND METHOD: To explore general public knowledge and possible regional factors contributing to antibiotic overuse, we performed a nation-wide quantitative survey (quota methods) of the general public (n = 1200) and general practitioners (n = 301) on their use (or prescription) and knowledge on antibiotics.

RESULTS: Overall, general public knowledge on antibiotics remains low, while and demand is high, a finding confirmed by GPs who feel strongly impelled to prescribe antibiotics. The younger generation (<35-years-old) know less about antibiotics than the older generation (>60-years-old), and manifest greater demand for antibiotics. In our survey, only 49 % of the younger population seemed aware of the fact that antibiotics work on bacteria alone, as opposed to 64 % of the older population (p < 0.001). Another example: 59 % of the respondents thought that it was good to keep antibiotics at home or that taking antibiotics helps to heal faster, as opposed to 26 % of the older population (p < 0.0001). On the other hand, inhabitants of a high-prescribing region were neither worse nor better informed than the rest of the French population.

CONCLUSION: In conclusion, our study underscores limited knowledge of antibiotics of the younger population, raising questions on how to effectively reach them. As if the case with other public health messages; large-scale nationwide educational program is deeply needed to reach members of all generations: at school, at university, at work and on the social media.