Homeopathic and Conventional Treatments for Acute Upper Respiratory Tract Infections: Real-World Cohort Study on Recurrence and Antibiotic Prescriptions.

1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

Homeopathic Medicines for the Treatment of Acute Otitis Media: a Real-World Cohort Study on Recurrences and Antibiotic Prescriptions Compared to those with Conventional Treatments.Homeopathy : the journal of the Faculty of Homeopathy · 2026
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Norbert BanikConsultant Health Services Research and Epidemiolgogy, Munich, Germany.

Sabine De JaegereDeutsche Homöopathie-Union, Karlsruhe, Germany.

Sabine NiederleDeutsche Homöopathie-Union, Karlsruhe, Germany, sabine.niederle@dhu.de.

Thorsten ReinekeDr. Willmar Schwabe, Karlsruhe, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionThe study evaluated the recurrence of acute upper respiratory tract infections (aURTIs) and the number of antibiotic prescriptions within a 12-month follow-up period in patients prescribed with either homeopathic medicines or medicines from one of four conventional medication classes for aURTI therapy.

methodsThis explorative cohort study used real-world electronic healthcare data from the Disease Analyzer database (IQVIA). Included were patients of all ages from Germany with an index diagnosis of aURTI between 2010 and 2018, who had prescriptions for either homeopathic, conventional cough and cold, nasal, or throat medicines or nonopioid analgesics on the day of diagnosis or within 6 days afterwards. aURTI recurrence was assessed by multivariable logistic regression, the number of antibiotic prescriptions by multivariable negative binomial regression.

resultsFrom 3,628,295 patients with aURTI diagnosis initially identified in the database in the relevant time interval, a total of 610,118 patients, fulfilling the in- and not violating the exclusion criteria, were retained for analysis. In the multivariate analyses on all patients, prescriptions of nasal medicines were associated with a significant, slightly higher (OR: 1.18, CI: 1.10-1.26, p < 0.001) risk of aURTI recurrence compared to homeopathic medicines within 12 months. Prescriptions of cough and cold (OR: 0.92, CI: 0.86-0.97, statistically significant, p = 0.005) as well as throat medicines (OR: 0.93, CI: 0.86-1.01, p = 0.086) and nonopioid analgesics (OR: 0.95, CI: 0.89-1.02, p = 0.181) were associated with slightly lower risk of aURTI recurrence compared to homeopathic medicines. In the analysis of the age-dependent subgroups, there were some deviations from the overall population in terms of statistical significance; however, the directions of the effect estimates were unchanged. Almost all results of negative binomial regression analyses assessing differences in the frequency of antibiotic prescriptions during follow-up, both in all patients and in the age-dependent subgroups, were statistically significant in favor of homeopathic medicines.

conclusionThe study demonstrated that follow-up recurrence and antibiotic prescriptions in patients with uncomplicated aURTI are at least comparable between patients treated with homeopathic and conventional medicines in real-world practice. Despite some methodological limitations inherent to the database used, the results of this study indicate that homeopathic medicines present a valuable therapeutic option for managing aURTI.

introductionThe study evaluated the recurrence of acute upper respiratory tract infections (aURTIs) and the number of antibiotic prescriptions within a 12-month follow-up period in patients prescribed with either homeopathic medicines or medicines from one of four conventional medication classes for aURTI therapy.

methodsThis explorative cohort study used real-world electronic healthcare data from the Disease Analyzer database (IQVIA). Included were patients of all ages from Germany with an index diagnosis of aURTI between 2010 and 2018, who had prescriptions for either homeopathic, conventional cough and cold, nasal, or throat medicines or nonopioid analgesics on the day of diagnosis or within 6 days afterwards. aURTI recurrence was assessed by multivariable logistic regression, the number of antibiotic prescriptions by multivariable negative binomial regression.

resultsFrom 3,628,295 patients with aURTI diagnosis initially identified in the database in the relevant time interval, a total of 610,118 patients, fulfilling the in- and not violating the exclusion criteria, were retained for analysis. In the multivariate analyses on all patients, prescriptions of nasal medicines were associated with a significant, slightly higher (OR: 1.18, CI: 1.10-1.26, p < 0.001) risk of aURTI recurrence compared to homeopathic medicines within 12 months. Prescriptions of cough and cold (OR: 0.92, CI: 0.86-0.97, statistically significant, p = 0.005) as well as throat medicines (OR: 0.93, CI: 0.86-1.01, p = 0.086) and nonopioid analgesics (OR: 0.95, CI: 0.89-1.02, p = 0.181) were associated with slightly lower risk of aURTI recurrence compared to homeopathic medicines. In the analysis of the age-dependent subgroups, there were some deviations from the overall population in terms of statistical significance; however, the directions of the effect estimates were unchanged. Almost all results of negative binomial regression analyses assessing differences in the frequency of antibiotic prescriptions during follow-up, both in all patients and in the age-dependent subgroups, were statistically significant in favor of homeopathic medicines.

conclusionThe study demonstrated that follow-up recurrence and antibiotic prescriptions in patients with uncomplicated aURTI are at least comparable between patients treated with homeopathic and conventional medicines in real-world practice. Despite some methodological limitations inherent to the database used, the results of this study indicate that homeopathic medicines present a valuable therapeutic option for managing aURTI.

Indexed as

Anti-Bacterial AgentsDrug PrescriptionsHomeopathyRespiratory Tract InfectionsAcute DiseaseAdolescentAdultAgedChildChild, PreschoolCohort StudiesFemaleGermanyHumansInfantMaleAnti-Bacterial AgentsAcute upper respiratory tract infectionsAkute Infektionen der oberen AtemwegeCohort studyConventional medicinesDaten aus der PraxisHomeopathic medicinesHomöopathische ArzneimittelKohortenstudieKonventionelle ArzneimittelReal-world data