Shaping the future: Current landscape and potential impact of educating children and adolescents on antimicrobial resistance – a systematic review and narrative synthesis

This systematic review analysed 119 antimicrobial resistance (AMR) educational initiatives for school-aged children and adolescents across 44 countries, showing a strong global effort to raise awareness. Most initiatives focused on improving knowledge—often delivered through lesson plans and games—and commonly used learner-centred (constructivist) teaching approaches. While many programmes successfully increased understanding of AMR, very few addressed behavioural change, and none measured real-world AMR-related outcomes. The study highlights a clear gap between knowledge and action, emphasizing the need for future educational strategies to move beyond awareness toward developing practical skills and behaviour change, ideally through more participatory and co-developed approaches with educators and students.