Successful risk communication about antibiotic resistance
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Successful risk communication about antibiotic resistance: A focus group study
IRAS ID
341826
Contact name
Eva Krockow
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leicester
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 31 days
Research summary
Research Summary:
By 2050, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is predicted to overtake cancer as a leading cause of death. To reduce AMR, we need urgent behaviour change and less antibiotic use. An evidence-based strategy for behaviour change is education, because increasing knowledge improves people’s psychological capability for change. Unfortunately, current education and risk communication about antimicrobial resistance is abstract, and health organisations have called for more effective language.In this focus group study, we plan to take the first steps towards developing new, successful risk communication messages about antibiotic resistance from the bottom up. This is a cross-cultural project, with focus groups being conducted in the UK and in South Africa, where antibiotic resistance levels are particularly high. We plan to recruit participants and collect data separately in each country, obtaining ethical approval locally. The fully anonymised data sets will then be shared with the international project team for analysis.
The study rationale is to engage patients with lived experiences of infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms and frontline doctors with experience of prescribing antibiotics for infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms to generate ideas for new language (e.g., metaphors and health risk terminology) for effective risk communication about the global threat of antibiotic resistance. This will also entail gaining insights into patients’ and doctors’ conceptualisations of the abstract threat of antibiotic resistance and understanding perceptions and attitudes towards current health risk messages and terminology pertaining to antibiotic resistance. Additionally, focus groups will provide a forum for patients with lived experiences and frontline hospital prescribers of antibiotics to exchange experiences and share views on antibiotic resistance.
We will conduct 2-4 focus groups with around 6-8 patients each and 3-4 focus groups with around 3-8 doctors each, recruited from University Hospitals Leicester and through relevant charities. Patients will need experience of an infection caused by a multidrug-resistant organism to be eligible. Doctors will need to be frontline prescribers of antibiotics with experience of treating infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms.
Summary of Results:
Antibiotic resistance is a health threat as serious as climate change—but far fewer people know about it. We need better health communications to inform people about the risk and what actions they can take to address it. In this study, we organised research workshops ('focus groups') with people who had recent experiences of antibiotic resistance and hospital doctors who had experiences in treating antibiotic resistance to discuss the public's communication needs. We also invited participants to brainstorm new ideas to communicate about antibiotic resistance, with a particular focus on metaphors.Our findings showed that most participants found public information about antibiotic resistance difficult to access, overly technical, and unclear. They struggled to find personal and cultural relevance, described the tone as punitive and highlighted contradictory advice (e.g., discouraging antibiotic use while recommending full course completion), undermining argument quality. Some appreciated buzzwords like ‘superbugs’, but most felt that messages lacked impact and “punch”. Discussions also highlighted pervasive misunderstandings about antibiotics and antibiotic resistance, such as the misbelief that it's the body rather than the bacteria that becomes resistant to antibiotics. It became evident that given the complexity of the science behind antibiotic resistance, lay audiences used simplistic rules of thumbs to make sense of information, but this often gave rise to misbeliefs.
Participants also generated a large range of novel and interesting ideas for more engaging health messages about antibiotic resistance, drawing on familiar metaphorical domains such as sports and games. These ideas will be refined and tested during follow-up research.
REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/SW/0082
Date of REC Opinion
1 Jul 2024
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion