Antimicrobial resistance is a recognized threat for public health and exposure of consumers to antimicrobial resistant bacteria should therefore be minimized. The consumer himself or herself can play an important role in minimizing exposure through the adoption of certain preventive measures. The willingness to adopt such preventive behaviour may among others be influenced by their risk perception.
This project aims to develop targeted intervention strategies for the reduction of exposure to antimicrobial resistance at consumer level. Under the lead of social scientists of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, this project is implemented under the National Research Program 72 “Antimicrobial Resistance” of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF).
As a first step, exposure pathways to AMR for Swiss consumers were mapped, and subsequently ranked according to their relative importance. Second, the risk perception of stakeholders with regard to AMR transmission pathways were examined by performing semi-structured interviews with veterinarians, farmers and consumers. A gap analysis was then performed to compare the exposure framework with the perception of the stakeholders in order to develop specific intervention strategies. In a final step, a parallel randomized controlled trial was implemented to assess to what extent tailored messages about AMR preventive measures can change people’s risk awareness, their willingness to adopt such measures and their preventive behaviour compared to general (non-tailored) information about AMR prevention.
SAFOSO has led the first step of the project and contributed to the performance of the gap analysis.
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