BACKGROUND: Children are frequently prescribed unnecessary antibiotics for acute upper respiratory infections. Almost 50 percent of antibiotic prescriptions in the United States are either unnecessary or inappropriate. Overuse of antibiotics is a primary driver for antimicrobial resistance. In 2013, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, in collaboration with the CDC Get Smart Campaign, created a web portal and launched an annual art competition to promote awareness of appropriate antibiotic use among pediatricians, child care providers, parents, and children.
METHODS: Our collaborative team developed and maintained an educational website promoting antibiotic stewardship since 2012: http://www.knowwhentosayno.org. Prior to introduction of the art competition, we developed guidelines for entries, modalities for promoting the competition, and process for selection of winners and awards. We used participation records from the children’s art competition and Google Analytics to assess website utilization. Google Analytics data collected during the same three month time period (2013-2015) allowed us to assess the impact of the art competition on website traffic.
RESULTS: Google Analytics data revealed improvements in multiple areas including an increase in the number of webpage sessions, increased page views, and a decrease in the bounce rate. Participation was greatest during year one and year three of the contest. Entries from 2015 represented 27 counties in PA, a 9% increase from 2013. Our website had 4,465 views in 2015, compared to only 2,082 views in 2013. Over the three year time period, an average of 78% of the total number of sessions were unique visitors to the web portal. The number of users doubled from 861 in year one, to 1700 in year three.
CONCLUSIONS: The increased website usage correlated with competition announcements, suggesting that this method could be used to engage children and their caregivers in online public health interventions. This low cost approach, combined with previous evidence, indicates that the children’s art competitions are attractive modalites to engage specific audiences, improve website usage, and sustain dissemination of targeted public health messages. Future directions will explore evaluation of the competition and comparison to other state programs.