Generating collective solutions to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use in Vietnam

Antibiotic resistance in Vietnam is amongst the highest in the world, driven by high levels of antibiotic use for human and animal health.

Community understanding and perceptions about antibiotics and antibiotic resistance is poor, and antibiotics are often prescribed inappropriately in healthcare settings.

There is limited evidence for the effectiveness of public engagement approaches to promote appropriate antibiotic use, compared to more traditional education-based methods, or for understanding the pathways and facilitating conditions for successful behaviour change. We will facilitate community-wide change in the way people prescribe and use antibiotics for human and animal health.

We will compare three different One Health approaches to change behaviour: training for human and animal health-workers; a public information campaign for communities and farmers; and participatory action research groups.

Activators in communities and healthcare settings will guide groups through a four-phase action cycle similar to Wellcome’s Responsive Dialogues approach, covering: 1. Understanding the problem of antibiotic resistance; 2. Planning and implementing strategies; 3. Monitoring strategies and generating evidence; 4.

Evaluating strategies and planning future actions. We will evaluate the impact on knowledge and behaviour through qualitative and quantitative methods. We will engage local researchers and policymakers through formative discussions and dissemination meetings.