Samantha's Magnus's Article Review

Haltiwanger, K., Hayden, G., Weber, T., Evans, B., & Possner, A. (2001). Antibiotic-seeking behavior in college students: What do they really expect? Journal of American College Health, 50(1), 9-13. doi:10.1080/07448480109595705.

Haltiwanger, Hayden, Weber, Evans, and Possner report and evaluate the findings of a study on the level of antibiotic-seeking behavior by college students. They also examine the relationship between antibiotic-seeking behavior and knowledge about antibiotics, expectation of antibiotic treatment, satisfaction with the clinician visit, and prescription of an antibiotic. To conduct the study, they invited one hundred and thirty-two students to participate on a large college campus in Virginia; of these on hundred and thirty-two students three failed to complete the survey and so they are excluded from the analysis. Each student was administered a questionnaire when they presented themselves to a university student health center. Any student who complained specifically of strep throat or flue after exposure to friends/roommates was excluded because of the normality of them being prescribed antibiotics or antiviral medication. Each participating student filled out a thirty question survey consisting of two parts; part one was completed prior to seeing their physician and part two was completed post seeing their physician. The clinicians were not informed that students were participating in a study. With this study the researchers were able to conclude despite the higher levels of education, college students reflect a worrisome degree of misunderstanding about how to appropriately use antibiotics and prescription medication in general. They also observed that some students found the concepts of illness harder to understand, this was illustrated by the 25% of students in the study which thought they had a viral infection and knew antibiotics would not affect their illness but they still felt they needed an antibiotic and by the 17% of students who were not even sure if they needed an antibiotic (Haltiwanger, Hayden, Weber, Evans, & Possner 2001). Overall the researchers found the misconceptions about antibiotic use extremely distressing considering the students level of education.

This article thoroughly examines antibiotic seeking behaviors and use amongst college students and shows how little the students know about appropriate antibiotic use. The article illustrates specific behaviors such as asking for an antibiotic when student know they have a viral infection or even asking for an antibiotic by name despite not knowing if it is the best antibiotic for the illness amongst college students. This article is an important article for our use in developing a website meant to inform the public about the challenges posed by antibiotic resistance because it illustrates many common misconceptions and harmful behaviors involving antibiotics.

First, this article discusses a specific age group specifically of interest to this class because everyone within this class falls within the category of a college student. Therefore this article can help not only the class to understand any misconceptions they may have about using antibiotics or antibiotics themselves but it will also help the campus understand and realize any bad antibiotic seeking behavior. Often students believe they understand their illness even before they see their physician and therefore they request specific types or names of prescriptions in an attempt to ‘treat’ themselves. This often leads to students being prescribed medication which will do little to help them feel better, such as being prescribed an antibiotic for a viral infection. As well, the researchers highlight how college student’s higher level of education may also increase our misconceptions about antibiotics. Because college students often have a rather impressive command of language and a large vocabulary but they do on have a full understanding of the meaning of the terms they are hearing students may develop misconceptions. This article allows us to pinpoint specific areas in this age group which will be beneficial in correcting many misconceptions about antibiotics.

Secondly, this article analyzes the relationship between the relationship among knowledge about antibiotics, expectation of antibiotic treatment, satisfaction with the clinician visit, and the prescription of an antibiotic. This article shows that a majority of the students were satisfied with their health center visit, but they were much more likely to be satisfied if the clinician made it clear why the student did or did not need an antibiotic. This helps to illustrate for our website that the more knowledge we have about antibiotics they better. However along the same lines but in a more negative light, students were more likely to be satisfied with their visit if they were prescribed antibiotics. This also helps to illustrate the misconceptions we have about antibiotics, specifically how antibiotics act as a cure all or a miracle drug. This article helps bring to light how difference aspects about our beliefs about antibiotics and our behaviors involving antibiotics affect specifically our clinician visits.

Thirdly, this article does have a few limitations which can affect its worth to our website project. Mainly the study’s sample size is rather small and taken from a specific area within our country, the mid-Atlantic. Because of this the results may not be entirely generalizable to the rest of our country. Another important thing to note is that only students with respiratory symptoms were surveyed and there was no determinacy of students with similar symptoms who would have self-treated with over-the-counter medications. However this article could result in the simulation of further similar studies along with just stimulating further research into this specific topic.

This article brought a lot of important trends in college students antibiotic seeking behavior and also demonstrates the need for more research on this specific subject. By comparing not only the antibiotic seeking behaviors of college students but also the relationship among knowledge about antibiotics, expectation of antibiotic treatment, satisfaction with the clinician visit, and the prescription of an antibiotic this article thoroughly shows trends in misconceptions of antibiotics along with illustrating potential causes for these misconceptions. Although this study is limited to a specific area of our country and may not be entirely generalizable I do believe this article brings to light specific misconceptions about antibiotics which can lead to contrary antibiotic seeking behaviors amongst college students. Because of this I believe this is a very good article to support my literature review.