## 2 Results
### Community Pharmacists' Knowledge regarding Antibiotic Resistance  
Table 2 presents the participants' knowledge regarding antibiotic resistance. Overall knowledge score was 82.69% indicating a very good knowledge of antibiotic resistance. However, less than 60% of the participants chose the right answer for the following two knowledge statements: \"Dispensing antibiotics without a prescription is contributing to the development of antibiotic resistance.\" and \"Dispensing antibiotics without a prescription is contributing to the inappropriate use of antibiotics by patients.\"  
Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the knowledge scores and the Discovery phase scores of the participants mapped to the geographical representation of the provinces of Thailand where the participants worked. The scores are colour-coded so that green represents the highest score while red represents the lowest score. The grey colour indicates the absence of participants from that province. The participants from most of the provinces showed a high knowledge score. Mean of overall Discovery phase score, reflecting the attitude towards the current antibiotic prescribing practices, herein after referred to \"attitude\" scores, was 73.12%, which indicates a relatively high attitude score.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c} \hline \hline
**Characteristics** & **N = 387 (\%)** \\ \hline
**Gender** & \\ Male & 131 (33.85) \\ Female & 256 (66.15) \\
**Age** & \\ Less than 30 & 163 (42.12) \\
30–39 & 162 (41.86) \\
40–49 & 42 (10.85) \\
50–59 & 13 (3.36) \\
60 and above & 7 (1.81) \\
**Postgraduate qualification** & \\ Yes & 47 (12.14) \\ No & 340 (87.86) \\
**Location in Thailand** & \\ Central & 149 (38.50\%) \\ Northeastern (Isan) & 117 (30.23\%) \\ Eastern & 39 (10.08\%) \\ Southern & 38 (9.82\%) \\ Northern & 22 (5.68\%) \\ Western & 5 (1.29\%) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 1: Socio-demographic characteristics of participants.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Statements** & **Those Who Chose the Right Answer** & **Those Who Chose the Wrong Answer** \\ \hline Dispensing antibiotics without a prescription & 93.80\% (\(n=363\)) & 6.20\% (\(n=24\)) \\ is a legal practice in Thailand. & 96.38\% (\(n=373\)) & 3.62\% (\(n=14\)) \\ \hline Dispensing antibiotics without a prescription & 55.81\% (\(n=216\)) & 44.19\% (\(n=171\)) \\ antibiotic resistance. & 57.62\% (\(n=223\)) & 42.38\% (\(n=164\)) \\ antibiotics by patients. & 3.36\% (\(n=13\)) & 96.64\% (\(n=374\)) \\ \hline Antibiotics are useful for bacterial infections. & 97.93\% (\(n=379\)) & 2.07\% (\(n=8\)) \\ \hline Antibiotics can cause secondary infections & 93.54\% (\(n=362\)) & 6.46\% (\(n=25\)) \\ human body. & 71.32\% (\(n=276\)) & 28.68\% (\(n=111\)) \\ \hline Resistance DNA in bacteria can transfer to other bacteria by a virus (bacteriophage). & 73.90\% (\(n=286\)) & 26.10\% (\(n=98\)) \\ \hline The main objective of antibiotic stewardship is the achievement of the most effective clinical outcome with the least adverse reactions. & 89.92\% (\(n=348\)) & 10.08\% (\(n=39\)) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 2: Participants’ knowledge regarding antibiotic resistance.  
Figure 1: Graphical representation of participants’ Knowledge scores in the study (Powered by Bing, ©GeoNames, Microsoft, TomTom).