What is it about?
As the "superbug crisis" threatens the end of modern medicine, millions of pounds are being invested to identify new diagnostic tests to help healthcare staff to end unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions. Exploring the case of Chiang Rai in northern Thailand, this study demonstrated that a new diagnostic test cannot alone solve the problem of antibiotic over-prescription. We found that healthcare staff generally trusted the new diagnostic technologies and used it to reassure themselves about their treatment decisions. Yet, patients’ lifestyles, cultural beliefs around illness and treatment, and the vast diversity of public, private, and unregulated healthcare providers were common barriers to accessing or correctly understanding the test.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
The introduction of new technologies can have unforeseen consequences, and the the global fight against "superbugs" (drug resistance) is no exception: A medical intervention such as CRP-testing, while showing promise in the lab or in controlled environments could be used quite differently and have unintended consequences in real life settings. Social research should thus go hand-in-hand with clinical research to ensure that medical interventions introduced into routine care have the desired and intended positive impact.
Perspectives
This study reflects a lot of social research on new technologies in low- and middle-income countries. We can see how the local context affects the role of diagnostic tests, for instance in light of healthcare staff’s phenomenally wide range of tactics when they decide to prescribe or not to prescribe antibiotics. A new diagnostic test will therefore always interact with existing behaviours and solutions, which can make the test perhaps more, perhaps less effective than planned – depending on the context.
Dr Marco J Haenssgen
University of Warwick
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The social role of C-reactive protein point-of-care testing to guide antibiotic prescription in Northern Thailand, Social Science & Medicine, April 2018, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.02.018.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Patient education media for a study on CRP guided treatment in Thailand
This video was shown to trial participants in northern Thailand to inform them about drug resistance and the diagnostic test (Production Scopus Films)
Cultural barriers to tackling the superbug crisis
Research led by the University of Oxford has revealed how the complex cultural and social environment in developing countries can complicate the use of new diagnostic technologies to fight the global superbug crisis.
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
