ArticleInfectious diseases and therapy2023
Using Behavior Change Theory to Identify Drivers and Barriers for Antifungal Treatment Decisions: A Case Study in a Large Teaching Hospital in the East of England, UK.
Article in Infectious diseases and therapy, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 2 citations in OpenAlex.
- Factors influencing physicians' antimicrobial prescribing decisions: A systematic review of qualitative studies.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Antifungal prescription and stewardship in hematology and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation units worldwide: an international survey of EHA-SWG Infections in Hematology.Bone marrow transplantation · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionAntifungal stewardship (AFS) programs are recognized to contribute to optimizing antifungal prescribing for treatment and prophylaxis. However, only a small number of such programs are implemented. Consequently, evidence on behavioral drivers and barriers of such programs and learnings from existing successful AFS programs is limited. This study aimed to leverage a large AFS program in the UK and derive learnings from it. The objective was to (a) investigate the impact of the AFS program on prescribing habits, (a) use a Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) based on the COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation for Behavior) to qualitatively identify drivers and barriers for antifungal prescribing behaviors across multiple specialties, and (c) semiquantitatively investigate trends in antifungal prescribing habits over the last 5 years.
methodsQualitative interviews and a semiquantitative online survey were conducted across hematology, intensive care, respiratory, and solid organ transplant clinicians at Cambridge University Hospital. The discussion guide and survey used were developed to identify drivers of prescribing behavior, based on the TDF.
resultsResponses were received from 21/25 clinicians. Qualitative outcomes demonstrated that the AFS program was effective in supporting optimal antifungal prescribing practices. We found seven TDF domains influencing antifungal prescribing decisions-five drivers and two barriers. The key driver was collective decision-making among the multidisciplinary team (MDT) while key barriers were lack of access to certain therapies and fungal diagnostic capabilities. Furthermore, over the last 5 years and across specialties, we observed an increasing tendency for prescribing to focus on more targeted rather than broad-spectrum antifungals.
conclusionsUnderstanding the basis for linked clinicians' prescribing behaviors for identified drivers and barriers may inform interventions on AFS programs and contribute to consistently improving antifungal prescribing. Collective decision-making among the MDT may be leveraged to improve clinicians' antifungal prescribing. These findings may be generalized across specialty care settings.
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