The 'Drug Bag' method: lessons from anthropological studies of antibiotic use in Africa and South-East Asia

Dixon, Justin, MacPherson, Eleanor ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7142-1158, Manyau, Salome, Nayiga, Susan, Yuzana, Khine Zaw, Miriam, Kayendeke, Christine, Nabirye, Laurie, Denyer Willis, Coll, de Lima Hutchison and Clare, I R Chandler (2019) 'The 'Drug Bag' method: lessons from anthropological studies of antibiotic use in Africa and South-East Asia'. Global Health Action, Vol 12, Issue 1, e1639388.

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Abstract

Understanding the prevalence and types of antibiotics used in a given human and/or animal population is important for informing stewardship strategies. Methods used to capture such data often rely on verbal elicitation of reported use that tend to assume shared medical terminology. Studies have shown the category ‘antibiotic’ does not translate well linguistically or conceptually, which limits the accuracy of these reports. This article presents a ‘Drug Bag’ method to study antibiotic use (ABU) in households and on farms, which involves using physical samples of all the antibiotics available within a given study site. We present the conceptual underpinnings of the method, and our experiences of using this method to produce data about antibiotic recognition, use and accessibility in the context of anthropological research in Africa and South-East Asia. We illustrate the kinds of qualitative and quantitative data the method can produce, comparing and contrasting our experiences in different settings. The Drug Bag method can produce accurate antibiotic use data as well as provide a talking point for participants to discuss antibiotic experiences. We propose it can help improve our understanding of antibiotic use in peoples’ everyday lives across different contexts, and our reflections add to a growing conversation around methods to study ABU beyond prescriber settings, where data gaps are currently substantial.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	QW Microbiology and Immunology > QW 45 Microbial drug resistance. General or not elsewhere classified. WA Public Health > Health Problems of Special Population Groups > WA 300 General. Refugees WA Public Health > Health Problems of Special Population Groups > WA 395 Health in developing countries
Faculty: Department:	Clinical Sciences & International Health > Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Programme (MLW)
Digital Object Identifer (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2019.1639388
Depositing User:	Tina Bowers
Date Deposited:	06 Aug 2019 09:48
Last Modified:	18 Nov 2019 10:28
URI:	https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/11363

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