Trial reportThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2001
A randomised controlled trial of delayed antibiotic prescribing as a strategy for managing uncomplicated respiratory tract infection in primary care.
Trial report in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2001. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Immediate versus delayed versus no antibiotics for respiratory infections.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Antibiotics for treatment of sore throat in children and adults.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Delayed antibiotic prescribing for respiratory tract infections: individual patient data meta-analysis.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2021Pooled it
- Delayed antibiotic prescriptions for respiratory infections.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Antibiotics for acute bronchitis.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Antibiotics for sore throat.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2013Pooled it
- Interventions to improve antibiotic prescribing practices in ambulatory care.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2005Pooled it
- Biomarker-guided antibiotic stewardship in suspected ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAPrapid2): a randomised controlled trial and process evaluation.The Lancet. Respiratory medicine · 2020Trial
- Effects on antibiotic dispensing rates of interventions to promote delayed prescribing for respiratory tract infections in primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2013Trial
- Postdated versus usual delayed antibiotic prescriptions in primary care: Reduction in antibiotic use for acute respiratory infections?Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2010Trial
- Reducing antibiotic use for acute bronchitis in primary care: blinded, randomised controlled trial of patient information leaflet.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2002Trial
- Point-of-care C-reactive protein testing and antibiotic prescribing for respiratory tract infections: a randomized controlled trial.Annals of family medicineTrial
- How, why and when are delayed (back-up) antibiotic prescriptions used in primary care? A realist review integrating concepts of uncertainty in healthcare.BMC public health · 2024Review
- Implementation of the delayed antibiotic prescribing strategy. Prospective observation study in primary care.Revista espanola de quimioterapia : publicacion oficial de la Sociedad Espanola de Quimioterapia · 2022Observational
- Impact of a Social Marketing Intervention on General Practitioners' Antibiotic Prescribing Practices for Acute Respiratory Tract Complaints in Malta.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Article
- Review
- Over prescribing of antibiotics for acute respiratory tract infections; a qualitative study to explore Irish general practitioners' perspectives.BMC family practice · 2019Article
- Knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of antibiotic use and resistance among patients in South Africa: A cross-sectional study.Southern African journal of infectious diseases · 2019Article
- General practitioners' perceptions of delayed antibiotic prescription for respiratory tract infections: A phenomenographic study.PloS one · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDespite evidence that uncomplicated lower respiratory tract infection (cough) does not respond appreciably to antibiotics and that bacterial resistance is increasing, general practitioners (GPs) still prescribe frequently.
aimTo assess delayed antibiotic prescribing as a strategy for reducing the unnecessary use of antibiotics for cough in primary care. DESIGN OF STUDY: Open randomised controlled trial of delayed versus immediate prescribing of antibiotics.
settingOne hundred and ninety-one adult patients with uncomplicated cough in 22 Scottish practices who would have received antibiotics under the GP's usual practice were randomised to receive either an immediate prescription (92 patients) or a delayed prescription (99 patients).
methodDelayed subjects were asked to wait a week before deciding whether to collect their prescription. Outcome measures included symptom duration, prescription uptake, patient satisfaction, patient enablement, and subsequent consultation rates. The 48 GPs who recruited patients were surveyed six months after the trial to see whether they used delayed prescribing as a part of their normal practice.
resultsStudy and control groups were similar at baseline. Of the subjects in the delayed arm, 55% did not pick up their prescription. Although most patients were satisfied, more patients in the immediate arm were very satisfied with the treatment (P = 0.001) and the consultation (P = 0.03). The patients in the immediate arm were also more enabled (3.3 versus 2.4; P = 0.04), although more of them intended to consult for similar complaints in the future (85% versus 69%, P = 0.02). We were unable to detect any difference in actual consulting behaviour in the follow-up period (mean = 15 months [SD = 5 months]). Subsequently, 68% of GPs used delayed prescribing at least monthly; all gave the prescription to the patient.
conclusionDelayed prescribing is effective at reducing the use of antibiotics for self-limiting cough; however, patients are less satisfied and enabled as a result. Patients may be deterred from consulting rather than becoming enabled.
Indexed as
Identifiers
11255901PMC1313951What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.