RESUMEN
Poor or suboptimal knowledge of appropriate antibiotic use is a cause for global concern and little is known about Central Asian countries. Therefore, this survey is aimed at evaluating awareness about antibiotic use and resistance among the adult population of Kazakhstan. A cross-sectional study of a random sample was conducted between October 2021 and February 2022 among 727 individuals without medical education and followed the methodology described in the WHO report "Antibiotic Resistance: Multi-country public awareness survey". Half of the respondents (50.4%) received antibiotic therapy within the last 12 months, 40.1% had no prescription for this and 40.4% received no advice from a medical professional. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (65.3%) never heard about antibiotic resistance and 57.2% believed that it is worth requesting the same antibiotic if it helped to treat a similar condition previously. In general, knowledge about antibiotic use proved to be low in 82.1% of respondents and 91.9% agreed with the statement that a common cold requires antibiotics. There is a need for awareness-raising campaigns to improve the knowledge about antibiotic use and resistance in the population of Kazakhstan.
RESUMEN
Background. Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer, and the sixth most common killer among men worldwide (Aubry et al., 2013). This research was motivated by the fact that PCa screening continues to be a controversial topic in the Kazakh medical community. This study aimed at description of how newly diagnosed PCa patients are managed in Pavlodar region of the Kazakhstan Republic and at presentation of a budget impact analysis (BIA) for PCa screening program. Also, we aimed to provide a comparative analysis of pricing system on medical services applied in both private and public healthcare sectors of the Kazakhstan Republic. Methods. New cases of PCa have been retrospectively analyzed for the period from January 2013 to December 2017 based on the information obtained from information system "Policlinic" maintained by the Pavlodar regional branch of the Republican Center for Electronic Health and from Cancer Registry of Pavlodar Regional Oncology Center. All data were analyzed with the help of SPSS 20.0 software. Results. The mean age of PCa patients was 68.34 years (SD = 8.559). The government of Kazakhstan invested 20,437,000 KZT (Kazakhstani tenge) in 2017 equivalently 61,188 USD-to fund a pilot study for examination of 9638 men. From 2013 to 2017, out of 49,334 men residing in Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan 1,248 men were diagnosed with prostate diseases, including 130 PCa cases. The PCa detection rate was equal to two cases per month. Only 22.8% of all PCa cases identified in the region within specified time period were revealed as a result of the government-funded PCa screening program. The average prostate cancer detection rate among the target group of Pavlodar region within the period of 5 years was equal to 0.23%. Conclusion. Based on the fact that the PCa screening program failed to enable adequate detection of new PCa cases, we would not recommend to continue this type of screening unless it is undergone careful revision and replanning.