Knowledge, Attitude, and Confidence Related to Antibiotic Prescribing and Antimicrobial Resistance Among Undergraduate Students at a Dental School in South Africa.

Introduction Antibiotic prescribing has seen a consistent rise in recent years, with dentists emerging as significant contributors to systemic antibiotic prescriptions. Decisions regarding antibiotic prescriptions are guided by clinical indications, patients' oral health status and medical history. Although undergraduate dental education highlights the treatment of most oral infections by clinical intervention, evidence exists of increased antibiotic prescribing among dentists. This highlights the need for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) awareness and antimicrobial stewardship in undergraduate dental education. Aim To determine the knowledge, attitudes, and confidence related to antibiotic prescribing and AMR awareness among undergraduate dental students. Methods A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study employing convenience sampling was conducted among undergraduate students at a dental school in South Africa. Responses were compiled in a Google spreadsheet (Google LLC, Mountain View, CA, USA) and exported to IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 30 (Released 2024; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States) for descriptive, chi-square/Freeman-Halton exact, and Kruskal-Wallis H analyses. Results A total of 173 of 240 eligible students participated (n=173, 72% response rate). Self-reported knowledge improved with year level, demonstrating a statistically significant association between year of study and knowledge ratings (χ²=50.17, p<0.001). Knowledge improved with progression through the programme and was not uniformly distributed among the year groups. Students demonstrated low confidence when determining the appropriate antibiotic dose and interval (n=116, 67.1% low confidence) as well as appropriate treatment duration (n=111, 64.2% low confidence). Conclusion This study demonstrates varying levels of knowledge, attitudes, and confidence in relation to antibiotic prescribing and AMR awareness. This underscores the need to strengthen dental school curricula to ensure undergraduate dental students practice appropriate antibiotic prescribing and antimicrobial stewardship.