A new social survey data set can be accessed free of charge for research and teaching to shine new light on antibiotic use, marginalisation, and rural treatment-seeking behaviour in Thailand and Laos. Published today on the UK Data Service platform, GSD Assistant Prof Marco J Haenssgen and his team have made available a crucial new resource for understanding the social context of drug resistance.

As part of the project “Antibiotics and Activity Spaces”, the researchers completed 5,885 survey interviews that enable both provincial-level estimates and detailed village-level analyses of rural health behaviours. The surveys were implemented by 10-member survey teams in each country between November 2017 and April 2018 and aimed to inform the global health topic of drug resistant “superbugs” (or “antimicrobial resistance”). Drug resistance has been named by the World Health Organization as one of the top 10 global health topics in 2019 and threatens to contribute to 10 million deaths annually by 2050 if left unchecked.

Dr Haenssgen commented: “We are very excited to share these data with social and public health researchers around the globe, but also to utilise this resource in our conceptual and methodological training on health and sustainable development”.

Photo credit: Patthanan Thavethanutthanawin.