Thesis (BA Communication Arts) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao, June 2015.

The World Health Organization released in April 2014 a report regarding the worsening case of Antimicrobial Resistance that affects people globally. They alerted the health departments around the world, most especially those from the third world countries. The government of the Republic of the Philippines made a few measures to alarm the public about the AMR prior to the report by WHO. These includes memorandum issued to warn the public. However, there were no concrete plans on how to combat the AMR in the country, for what are available are fragmented laws, in which the public are not aware of. To address this problem, the researcher decided to tackle the issue in a rural area of Compostela Valley. The baseline data gathered by the researcher revealed that there is a low knowledge about antibiotics and that the respondents were unable to determine which medicine is an antibiotic and which is not. The data also revealed that the misuse of antibiotics is very common among the respondents. Given this data, the researcher decided to create a communication plan that will (1) target the significant indicators of intention and behavior on antibiotic misuse and (2) determine and change the perceptions of risk towards Antimicrobial Resistance. To achieve these main objectives, the researcher decided to use the Integrative Model of Behavior Prediction as the theory of the study and Behavior Change Communication as the backbone or framework of the research. The formative evaluation was done and the results were analyzed using the Spearman's Rank Correlation, Chi-square Test of Independence and Categorical Regression with Optimal Scaling. It was revealed that rampant use misuse of antibiotics is present. Moreover, the overall findings for the cognitive variables were low. The intentions and behavior on three common antibiotic misuse practices also are noted to be negative. These data pave the way into the creation of the Project AMPING! Antibiotics: magmaalam sa paggamit? Ikan na go!, a 4-year communication initiative to combat AMR. This communication is a population-specific plan, which is in accordance to the theories used. It can be implemented in populations with the same characteristics as the sample population used in the study. The communication plan not only serve as a basis for future campaigns, but it can also be used as the baseline data, since there are not so much studies in the Philippines that tackles the issue on the use of antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance. In implemented, this strategy will be a first for the Philippines.