Antimicrobial resistance is a major threat to global health in the 21st century. In the age of the internet and social media, infographics may constitute an effective educational resource for transmitting complete messages about antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance and driving behavioural change. We aimed to evaluate the infographics on antibiotics available on the internet in terms of their documentary quality, purpose, and appropriateness as educational tools for explaining the strategic lines defined in the World Health Organization Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (GAP-AMR) and for conveying the One Health concept. We obtained the infographics for this cross-sectional study on 4 March 2021 by searching the terms "infographic" and "antibiotic" in Google Images. We verified infographic documentary quality by analysing the image, authorship, title, structure, date, and licence. To evaluate the purpose, we determined whether it coincided with one of the strategic objectives set out in the GAP-AMR. The degree of appropriateness depended on the type of key awareness message on antibiotic use. After obtaining these results, we performed a cross-sectional evaluation to determine how successfully these infographics conveyed the One Heath concept. We selected 247 infographics from 518 references. Of the included infographics, 97 (39%) were produced by public institutions; 58 (23%) read from left to right; 142 (57%) had an educational purpose; 156 (63%) focused on humans; 140 (57%) were subject to copyright; and 97 (39%) had no licence of any type. Almost one quarter ( = 57; 23%) included no key message on proper use of antibiotics. Infographics that included an author/promoter had a significantly higher mean number of messages that those without disclosure of authorship (1.67 vs. 0.50; < 0.001). The infographics on antibiotics available on the internet are of moderate general quality. Most are produced by public institutions and have a clear and readable layout, but very few have a Creative Commons license to enable their reuse as informative material. The most common purpose is to improve awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance; few infographics focus on the remaining four strategic objectives of the GAP-AMR. It would be useful for authors of educational infographics on antibiotics to promote key messages related to antimicrobial resistance and the One Health concept, in accordance with the first objective of the WHO GAP-AMR.
Vet Ital. 2021 May 11;57(1):5-12
[PMID:
34313093]
Aten Primaria. 2018 Nov;50(9):547-552
[PMID:
29426583]
Public Underst Sci. 2018 Apr;27(3):365-381
[PMID:
28393588]
Int J Med Inform. 2019 Nov;131:103955
[PMID:
31487575]
Nurs Educ Perspect. 2016 Sep/Oct;37(5):299-301
[PMID:
27740570]
CJEM. 2018 Nov;20(6):826-833
[PMID:
30289098]
Clin Microbiol Infect. 2002;8 Suppl 2:43-68
[PMID:
12427207]
JAC Antimicrob Resist. 2020 Dec 04;2(4):dlaa102
[PMID:
34223054]
BMC Public Health. 2021 Feb 17;21(1):367
[PMID:
33596857]
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Jun 26;16(13):
[PMID:
31247907]
Anaesthesia. 2020 Dec;75(12):1579-1582
[PMID:
32227594]
J Clin Epidemiol. 2018 May;97:86-94
[PMID:
29269021]
N Engl J Med. 2013 Feb 28;368(9):789-91
[PMID:
23445090]
J Korean Med Sci. 2022 Jul 11;37(27):e214
[PMID:
35818705]
BMC Med Res Methodol. 2020 Mar 13;20(1):58
[PMID:
32169041]
Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2020 Dec;56(6):106209
[PMID:
33160043]
J Antimicrob Chemother. 2016 Jan;71(1):27-33
[PMID:
26459555]
One Health. 2020 Sep 29;11:100171
[PMID:
33392372]
Aten Primaria. 2013 Feb;45(2):101-6
[PMID:
23159792]
Am J Perinatol. 2020 Oct;37(12):1185-1188
[PMID:
32683668]
Br J Sports Med. 2017 Aug;51(16):1183-1184
[PMID:
28039124]
BMJ Glob Health. 2017 Oct 31;2(4):e000518
[PMID:
29225955]
Gac Sanit. 2006 Mar-Apr;20(2):159-60
[PMID:
16753094]
Can Commun Dis Rep. 2014 Nov 07;40(Suppl 2):42-44
[PMID:
29769906]
Health Psychol. 2018 Aug;37(8):782-786
[PMID:
30024233]
J Med Internet Res. 2020 Oct 23;22(10):e23173
[PMID:
33095177]
Eat Disord. 2010 Mar-Apr;18(2):148-52
[PMID:
20390618]