ArticleBMJ open2018
Do NHS GP surgeries employing GPs additionally trained in integrative or complementary medicine have lower antibiotic prescribing rates? Retrospective cross-sectional analysis of national primary care prescribing data in England in 2016.
Article in BMJ open, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Integrative evidence-informed management of feverish illnesses in childhood-outcomes of the public FeverFriend prospective app registry.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Administrative interventions in antimicrobial stewardship: a global scoping review of all WHO regions.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- A core outcome set for acute otitis media (COS-AOM) for primary and community care studies.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- The Introduction of the Global Traditional, Complementary, and Integrative Healthcare (TCIH) Research Agenda on Antimicrobial Resistance and Its Added Value to the WHO and the WHO/FAO/UNEP/WOAH 2023 Research Agendas on Antimicrobial Resistance.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Review
- Antibiotic Use in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Practicing Integrative Medicine-A Retrospective Analysis.Journal of integrative and complementary medicine · 2024Observational
- Exploring the association between phytopharmaceutical use and antibiotic prescriptions in upper respiratory infections: results from a German cohort study evaluating the impact of naturopathy qualifications of general practitioners using routine data.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Article
- Traditional, complementary and integrative healthcare: global stakeholder perspective on WHO's current and future strategy.BMJ global health · 2023Review
- Mechanistic Evidence ofPharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Integrative approaches to antimicrobial resistance.European journal of integrative medicine · 2020Article
- Article
- On the edges of medicine - a qualitative study on the function of complementary, alternative, and non-specific therapies in handling therapeutically indeterminate situations.BMC family practice · 2019Article
- Contributing to Global Health: Development of a Consensus-Based Whole Systems Research Strategy for Anthroposophic Medicine.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo determine differences in antibiotic prescription rates between conventional General Practice (GP) surgeries and GP surgeries employing general practitioners (GPs) additionally trained in integrative medicine (IM) or complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) (referred to as IM GPs) working within National Health Service (NHS) England.
designRetrospective study on antibiotic prescription rates per STAR-PU (Specific Therapeutic group Age-sex weighting Related Prescribing Unit) using NHS Digital data over 2016. Publicly available data were used on prevalence of relevant comorbidities, demographics of patient populations and deprivation scores.
settingPrimary Care.
participants7283 NHS GP surgeries in England. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE: The association between IM GPs and antibiotic prescribing rates per STAR-PU with the number of antibiotic prescriptions (total, and for respiratory tract infection (RTI) and urinary tract infection (UTI) separately) as outcome.
resultsIM GP surgeries (n=9) were comparable to conventional GP surgeries in terms of list sizes, demographics, deprivation scores and comorbidity prevalence. Negative binomial regression models showed that statistically significant fewer total antibiotics (relative risk (RR) 0.78, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.97) and RTI antibiotics (RR 0.74, 95% CI 0.59 to 0.94) were prescribed at NHS IM GP surgeries compared with conventional NHS GP surgeries. In contrast, the number of antibiotics prescribed for UTI were similar between both practices.
conclusionNHS England GP surgeries employing GPs additionally trained in IM/CAM have lower antibiotic prescribing rates. Accessibility of IM/CAM within NHS England primary care is limited. Main study limitation is the lack of consultation data. Future research should include the differences in consultation behaviour of patients self-selecting to consult an IM GP or conventional surgery, and its effect on antibiotic prescription. Additional treatment strategies for common primary care infections used by IM GPs should be explored to see if they could be used to assist in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.
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