A European questionnaire-based study on population awareness and risk perception of antimicrobial resistance

To tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is of outmost importance for the general population to understand the severity and the relevance of different routes of transmission. Respondents of different age groups, educational and occupational backgrounds, area of living, diet and household composition participated in an online survey with questions concerning socio-demographics, personal use of antibiotics, awareness, general knowledge, sources of information, behavior and attitude toward antibiotics, and risk perception on antibiotics and AMR. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were carried out. A total of 1252 respondents, mainly from EU, participated in the survey. About 57.7% declared they consumed antibiotics in the last year and some misguided behaviors were identified, especially for those not having a food- or health-related background, who more frequently failed in giving the right answer to uncontroversial true/false questions (ANOVA, P < 0.05). The youngest respondents were less confident on the information received from traditional media (OR = 0.425), the national government (OR = 0.462), and consumer organizations (OR = 0.497), while they frequently obtained information from social networks and online media, which could therefore be exploited as a channel for educational campaigns targeting this population group. New measures, strategies and policy agenda at a European level aimed at improving awareness on AMR among targeted community groups must be taken into consideration.