Become an Antibiotic Guardian

To increase public and healthcare professionals’ engagement in behaviors aimed at reducing the threat of antimicrobial resistance, the United Kingdom launched the Antibiotic Guardian Campaign. In September of 2014, a campaign website was developed to house an online pledge system in addition to campaign materials and resources. The pledge system was designed to provide individuals who visited the page with a single pledge tailored to the sector they fell within – member of the public, healthcare professional, or student/educator. In addition to pledges being specific for different audiences, they also aimed to help individuals move from intention to action by having participants define when, where, and how they would act in order to fulfill their pledge. Materials and resources housed on the website were designed to support participants, providing information on how to treat illnesses without the use of antibiotics and the threat of antimicrobial resistance. Resources were presented as posters, leaflets, social media graphics, and videos. To further support the campaign, a toolkit was developed for healthcare professionals and letters were sent to leaders in primary and secondary care as well as professional organizations promoting the formation of a network through which campaign messaging and materials could be disseminated. The campaign was further promoted to healthcare workers through exhibits at professional conferences. An online questionnaire was developed to evaluate the campaign’s impact on self-reported knowledge/awareness and changes in behavior amongst participants. Additionally, questions were designed to collect information on participants’ motivations for becoming an Antibiotic Guardian and their reasons for choosing specific pledges. By November 19th, 2014, 11,833 pledges to become Antibiotic Guardians had been made. Questionnaire results showed that actions taken related to pledges made increased from 30.7% pre-campaign to 63.4% post-campaign.

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