Community-based intervention to address antibiotic resistance: protocol for an embedded mixed-methods intervention...

Antibiotic resistance is a global threat that occurs naturally; however, the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals are accelerating the process, necessitating 'one health' approach to mitigate the situation. Considering the 'one health' approach in the proposed study, it is the novel concept for implementation in the Indian context. The proposed study would generate evidence on the burden of antibiotic resistance, awareness and practices of proper antibiotic consumption among community members in West Bengal. The intervention package proposed in this study will be a novel intervention, which can be integrated with the existing healthcare delivery system as well.

The proposed study will be an embedded mixed-methods interventional community-based study to be conducted in greater Kolkata region and West Medinipur district among adults (≥18 years) who will give consent for participation, and preferably residing in a particular area for more than 10 years. Intervention in the form of a behavioural intervention package, targeting awareness, perceived severity and perceived susceptibility regarding the issue of antibiotic resistance will be developed and implemented through randomisation of clusters. Data collection in the form of survey, observation, in-depth interview, collection of human, animal and environment samples will be carried out.

The ethical clearance has been obtained from the Institutional ethics committee, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. The findings of this project will be communicated to the State Government Health Officials.

CTRI/2023/02/050054.