ArticleBMC family practice2014
Patient presentation and physician management of upper respiratory tract infections: a retrospective review of over 5 million primary clinic consultations in Hong Kong.
Article in BMC family practice, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
14 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Results from a Patient-Based Health Education Intervention in Reducing Antibiotic Use for Acute Upper Respiratory Tract Infections in the Private Sector Primary Care Setting in Singapore.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2017Trial
- Budget impact analysis of implementing point-of-care molecular testing for influenza A&B and RSV in Saudi older adult patients across hospital and home-care settings.Health economics review · 2026Article
- A new pathogen pattern of acute respiratory tract infections in primary care after COVID-19 pandemic: a multi-center study in southern China.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Parents' Knowledge of and Attitude toward Acute Otitis Media and Its Treatment in Children: A Survey at Primary Healthcare Centers in the Aseer Region.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Patient profile and antibiotic use in a dedicated upper respiratory tract infection clinic based in a primary healthcare setting during COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia: A cross sectional study.Malaysian family physician : the official journal of the Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia · 2022Article
- Does Azithromycin and Cetirizine Combination Given for Upper Respiratory Tract Infections has any Significant Effect on QTc?Journal of clinical and diagnostic research : JCDR · 2017Article
- Antibiotic prescribing in public and private practice: a cross-sectional study in primary care clinics in Malaysia.BMC infectious diseases · 2016Article
- Help-seeking and antibiotic prescribing for acute cough in a Chinese primary care population: a prospective multicentre observational study.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2016Observational
- Patient experience a vital consideration in crafting solutions for healthcare challenges.The Australasian medical journal · 2016Article
- Practical use of povidone-iodine antiseptic in the maintenance of oral health and in the prevention and treatment of common oropharyngeal infections.International journal of clinical practice · 2015Review
- Parents' beliefs and knowledge about the management of acute otitis media: a qualitative study.BMC family practice · 2015Article
- Evaluation of the prescriptions written for upper respiratory tract infections.Northern clinics of Istanbul · 2015Article
- Antibiotic Resistance: What are the Opportunities for Primary Care in Alleviating the Crisis?Frontiers in public health · 2015Review
- Antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory tract infections in the Asia-Pacific region: A brief review.Malaysian family physician : the official journal of the Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia · 2014Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundUpper respiratory tract infection (URTI) has a significant healthcare burden worldwide. Considerable resources are consumed through health care consultations and prescribed treatment, despite evidence for little or no effect on recovery. Patterns of consultations and care including use of symptomatic medications and antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections are poorly described.
methodsWe performed a retrospective review of computerized clinical data on patients presenting to all public primary care clinics in Hong Kong with symptoms of respiratory tract infections. International Classification of Primary care (ICPC)codes used to identify patients included otitis media (H71), streptococcal pharyngitis (R72), acute URTI (R74), acute sinusitis (R75), acute tonsillitis (R76), acute laryngitis (R77), and influenza (R80). Sociodemographic variables such as gender, age, chronic illness status, attendance date, type and duration of drug prescribed were also collected.
resultsOf the 5,529,755 primary care consultations for respiratory symptoms from 2005 to 2010, 98% resulted in a prescription. Prescription patterns of symptomatic medication were largely similar across the 5 years. In 2010 the mean number of drugs prescribed per consultation was 3.2, of which the commonly prescribed medication were sedating antihistamines (79.9%), analgesia (58.9%), throat lozenges (40.4%) and expectorant cough syrup (33.8%). During the study period, there was an overall decline in antibiotic prescription (8.1% to 5.1%). However, in consultations where the given diagnosis was otitis media (H71), streptococcal pharyngitis (R72), acute sinusitis (R75) or acute laryngitis (R76), over 90% resulted in antibiotic prescription.
conclusionThere was a decline in overall antibiotic prescription over the study period. However, the use of antibiotics was high in some conditions e.g. otitis media and acute laryngitis a. Multiple symptomatic medications were given for upper respiratory tract infections. Further research is needed to develop clinical and patients directed interventions to reduce the number of prescriptions of symptomatic medications and antibiotics that could reduce costs for health care services and iatrogenic risk to patients.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What 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.