Trial reportBulletin of the World Health Organization2026
Effectiveness of doctors' advice on non-prescription antibiotic use: a randomized controlled trial, China.
Trial report in Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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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.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: To evaluate a family doctor-led, community-based intervention to reduce non-prescription antibiotic use. Methods: We conducted a parallel-group, cluster-randomized controlled trial at 22 community health centres in Shenzhen, China, over an 8-month period in 2023. We randomly (1 : 1) assigned community health centres to provide a 4-week, family doctor-led, community-based online health intervention, or to provide routine care only. Eligible participants were adults aged 18 to 75 years who had resided in the community for more than 6 months. The primary outcome was the level of non-prescription antibiotic use (including self-medication with antibiotics and purchase of antibiotics without a prescription). Secondary outcomes were: levels of self-medication with antibiotics; purchase of antibiotics without a prescription; self-storage of antibiotics; and prescribed antibiotic use. Findings: We enrolled 1550 participants, with 788 assigned to the intervention group and 762 to the control group. We observed a significant decrease in non-prescription antibiotic use in the intervention group compared to the control group (odds ratio, OR: 0.49; 95% confidence interval, CI: 0.31-0.77) at 6 months. There was a significant reduction in self-medication (OR: 0.33; 95% CI: 0.13-0.83) and purchase of antibiotics without a prescription (OR: 0.59; 95% CI: 0.37-0.94), but not in self-storage (OR: 0.80; 95% CI: 0.54-1.18) or prescribed antibiotic use (OR: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.48-1.87) at 6 months. Conclusion: The family doctor-led, community-based intervention demonstrated promising effectiveness and feasibility. This study provides valuable insights for the design and implementation of such interventions aimed at promoting rational use of antibiotics.
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