2. Material and methods
2.1. Survey setting
We conducted a cross-sectional survey of penultimate and final year medical students (5th and 6th year) at the Nice medical school. All the students had completed their training in infectious diseases. This survey was part of a larger study sponsored by ESGAP (the ESCMID [European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases] Study Group for Antibiotic Policies), on final year medical students in seven European countries.
2.2. Survey design
We designed the questionnaire after a literature review of comparable studies conducted among medical students, as well as junior and senior physicians [1,2,6,8–10], and with infectious diseases experts. Ten medical students participated in a pilot test to further develop the survey.
The 41-point self-administered KABP (Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs and Practices) survey was conducted in English and Internet based (using www.surveymonkey.com). We collected information on medical students’ confidence in antibiotic prescribing, their training on antibiotic use and their understanding of core antibiotic stewardship principles, their knowledge of prevalence of antibiotic resistance and antibiotic misuse, their beliefs concerning contributors to resistance, and their perception of antibiotic resistance for public health. A scaled multiple choice single answer response (both 4- and 5-point Likert-style scales were used) was proposed for each question. The questionnaire is available as an Addendum.