Table 7.

Themes, subthemes, and categories

Themes	Subthemes	Categories
Knowledge	General knowledge about antibiotics	Familiar with the term antibiotics. Low knowledge about the medical conditions to be treated with antibiotics. Unable to differentiate bacterial and viral infections.
	Antibiotic resistance	Not familiar with the term. Inadequate knowledge about antibiotic resistance. Causes of resistance were not completely known.
Attitude	Attitude regarding use of antibiotics	Concept of getting well early by using antibiotics. Thought the medicine was of poor quality in cases of antibiotic ineffectiveness.
Practices	Use of antibiotics	Use of antibiotics was inappropriate. Purchase of antibiotics based on previous antibiotic prescriptions. Use of home stock of antibiotics. Mostly did not complete the duration of therapy. Never followed the prescription strictly. Never reported side effects occurring due to antibiotics.
	Consultation with doctor	Did not consult doctors until condition got worse. Private sector doctors had high consultation fees. Public sector doctors gave short consultation time. Mostly did not follow the instructions given by the doctor.
	Consultation with pharmacist	Most of the pharmacies/medical stores did not have pharmacists. Where community pharmacists are available, people did not ask questions due to lack of awareness about the role of the pharmacist in healthcare system.
Suggestions for the improvement of healthcare system	General population-related	Patients should always consult the doctor for their illness. Antibiotics should be used as prescribed by the doctor.
	Doctor-related	Doctors should prescribe antibiotics based on conditions and avoid over-prescribing of antibiotics.
	Pharmacist-related	Availability of pharmacists at community pharmacies should be assured. Out-dated prescriptions should not be refilled to minimize self-medication.
	Government-related	Improvements in the government hospital system to make this the preferred place to go. Number of doctors should be increased so that doctors can give appropriate consultation time to their patients.