Observational studyThe European journal of general practice2020
Improving the quality of antibiotic prescribing through an educational intervention delivered through the out-of-hours general practice service in Ireland.
Observational study in The European journal of general practice, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 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
15 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Antimicrobial stewardship in Ireland (2010-2021): a scoping review.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Development of AWaRe-Based Quality Indicators to Assess the Appropriateness of Antibiotic Prescribing in Primary Healthcare in South Africa.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Action design research to develop an interactive dashboard to visualise and compare patient data from Irish general practice (CARA).BMJ open · 2025Article
- Oral Antibacterial Drug Prescribing in Primary Care Out-of-Hours Services: A Scoping Review.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Setting targets for antibiotic use in general practice in Europe: A scoping review.The European journal of general practice · 2024Article
- Article
- Design and architecture of the CARA infrastructure for visualising and benchmarking patient data from general practice.BMJ health & care informatics · 2024Article
- Evaluation of different landing pages on behavioural engagement with the CARA dashboard: A user research protocol.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Where to start? The Irish Emergency Department Antimicrobial Discharge (EDAD) study: a multicentre, prospective cohort analysis.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2024Article
- Trends in antibiotic prescribing in primary care out-of-hours doctors' services in Ireland.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2024Article
- Point prevalence audit surveys of respiratory tract infection consultations and antibiotic prescribing in primary care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland.The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · 2023Article
- Disease-Specific Quality Indicators for Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing for Respiratory Infections (ESAC Quality Indicators) Applied to Point Prevalence Audit Surveys in General Practices in 13 European Countries.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- How effective is a brief educational intervention on prescribing first-line antibiotics in acute cystitis? A quasi-experimental study among general practitioners in Croatia.Croatian medical journal · 2022Article
- Editors' choice: the most valued articles published in theThe European journal of general practice · 2021Article
- Presentation, Treatment, and Natural Course of Severe Symptoms of Urinary Tract Infections Measured by a Smartphone App: Observational and Feasibility Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Article
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 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAntibiotic resistance is a threat to our health and health systems. Up to 70% of antibiotics are prescribed in general practice. In Ireland, Out-of-hours (OOH) services are mostly provided by co-operatives of GPs and the 11 main OOH centres cover up to 90% of the population. More than 80% of GPs are involved in OOH care in their area, which provides an opportunity to deliver education and awareness through this centralised system.
objectivesTo analyse the change in the quality of antibiotic prescribing after the introduction of an educational intervention categorising antibiotics into a red (avoid) and green (preferred) panel.
methodsEducational information for the GP was developed based on the national prescribing guidelines. A particular focus was to reduce co-amoxyclav prescribing. An electronic pop-up message to record whether an antibiotic was prescribed, was displayed at the end of each consultation in the patient management software of the OOH-centre, after the decision of prescribing was made. Antibiotic prescribing was compared for a 13-week period (week 47-week 7) in 2016/2017 with 2017/2018.
resultsPre-intervention prescribing of red antibiotics was 44% which reduced to 17% after the intervention. The mean percentage of co-amoxyclav, the most prescribed non-firstline prescription, was 33% of all antibiotic prescriptions which dropped to 10%.
conclusionOur intervention implemented in the OOH GP service categorised antibiotics into red prescriptions and green (firstline) prescriptions, which was recorded through an electronic pop-up message, resulted in an absolute reduction of 27% in red prescriptions and more than 23% in co-amoxyclav prescriptions.
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.