Postdated Versus Usual Delayed Antibiotic Prescriptions in Primary Care: Reduction in Antibiotic Use for Acute Respiratory Infections?

Overview

Journal Can Fam Physician

Specialties General Medicine
Public Health

Date 2010 Oct 15

PMID 20944049

Citations 10

Authors

Graham Worrall

Angela Kettle

Wendy Graham

Jim Hutchinson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether postdating delayed antibiotic prescriptions results in a further decrease (over usual delayed prescriptions) in antibiotic use.

Design: Randomized controlled trial.

Setting: A small rural town in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Participants: A total of 149 consecutive adult primary care patients who presented with acute upper respiratory tract infections.

Intervention: Delayed prescriptions for patients who might require antibiotics were randomly dated either the day of the office visit (ie, the usual group) or 2 days later (ie, the postdated group).

Main Outcome Measures: Whether or not the prescriptions were filled and the time it took for the patients to fill the prescriptions were noted by the 4 local pharmacies and relayed to the investigators.

Results: In total, 149 delayed antibiotic prescriptions were written, 1 per patient. Of the 74 usual delayed prescriptions given out, 32 (43.2%) were filled; of the 75 postdated delayed prescriptions given out, 33 (44.0%) were filled. Sixteen patients from each group filled their delayed prescriptions earlier than the recommended 48 hours. Statistical analyses-χ² tests to compare the rates of antibiotic use between the 2 groups and t tests to compare the mean time to fill the prescription between the 2 groups-indicated that these results were not significant (P > .05).

Conclusion: Although delayed prescriptions reduce the rate of antibiotic use, postdating the delayed prescription does not seem to lead to further reduction in use.

Citing Articles

Immediate versus delayed versus no antibiotics for respiratory infections.

Spurling G, Dooley L, Clark J, Askew D Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2023; 10:CD004417.

PMID: 37791590 PMC: 10548498. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD004417.pub6.

Exploring Antimicrobial Stewardship Influential Interventions on Improving Antibiotic Utilization in Outpatient and Inpatient Settings: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Sadeq A, Hasan S, AbouKhater N, Conway B, Abdelsalam A, Shamseddine J Antibiotics (Basel). 2022; 11(10).

PMID: 36289964 PMC: 9598859. DOI: 10.3390/antibiotics11101306.

Educational Interventions to Reduce Prescription and Dispensing of Antibiotics in Primary Care: A Systematic Review of Economic Impact.

Rocha V, Estrela M, Neto V, Roque F, Figueiras A, Herdeiro M Antibiotics (Basel). 2022; 11(9).

PMID: 36139965 PMC: 9495011. DOI: 10.3390/antibiotics11091186.

A systematic literature review and meta-analysis of community pharmacist-led interventions to optimise the use of antibiotics.

Lambert M, Smit C, de Vos S, Benko R, Llor C, Paget W Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2022; 88(6):2617-2641.

PMID: 35112381 PMC: 9313811. DOI: 10.1111/bcp.15254.

Systematic review of patient-oriented interventions to reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections.

Mortazhejri S, Hong P, Yu A, Hong B, Stacey D, Bhatia R Syst Rev. 2020; 9(1):106.

PMID: 32384919 PMC: 7210679. DOI: 10.1186/s13643-020-01359-w.

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