OBJECTIVE To determine differences in antibiotic prescription rates between conventional General Practice (GP) surgeries and GP surgeries employing general practitioners (GPs) additionally trained in integrative medicine (IM) or complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) (referred to as IM GPs) working within National Health Service (NHS) England. DESIGN Retrospective study on antibiotic pr...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the impact of an educational intervention on judicious antibiotic prescription for upper respiratory diseases in children. METHODS A multicentre before-and-after study was conducted in five major community child healthcentres in Israel. Antibiotic prescription data were collected for all visits of patients aged 3 months to 18 years with a diagnosis of acute otitis media...

OBJECTIVE To investigate community pharmacists' knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and habits with regard to antibiotic dispensing without medical prescription in Spain. METHODS A qualitative research using focus group method (FG) in Galicia (north-west Spain). FG sessions were conducted in the presence of a moderator. A topic script was developed to lead the discussions, which were audiorecor...

BACKGROUND Improper use of antibiotics increases antimicrobial resistance. OBJECTIVE Evaluate the use of antibiotics and the impact of an intervention designed to improve antibiotic prescription for surgical prophylaxis in 6 hospitals of Monterrey, Mexico. MATERIAL AND METHODS Design: A prospective multicenter survey and a pretest-postest experimental study. Phase 1: Survey to evaluate the ...

BACKGROUND Despite efforts to ensure more accurate prescribing of antibiotics for respiratory tract infections, inappropriate selection of antibiotic treatment remains a big issue. We tried to ascertain which factors best predict the nature of fluoroquinolone prescribing for acute cough in primary care. METHODS Random effects logistic regression models were applied to the baseline prescriptio...

Drug prescription errors are a common cause of adverse incidents and may lead to adverse outcomes, sometimes in subtle ways, being compounded by circumstances or further errors. Therefore, it is important that veterinarians issue the correct drug at the correct dose. Using two or more prescribed drugs may lead to drug interactions. Some drug interactions are very harmful and may have potential ...

The use of antibiotics is highest in primary care and directly associated with antibiotic resistance in the community. We assessed regional variations in antibiotic use in primary care in Switzerland and explored prescription patterns in relation to the use of point of care tests. Defined daily doses of antibiotics per 1000 inhabitants (DDD(1000pd) ) were calculated for the year 2007 from reimb...

The study primarily aimed at assessing the appropriateness of antibiotic prescriptions in a section of public health institutions in Lesotho using an assessment tool formulated from principles of antibiotic prescribing. Relevant data on procedures of infection diagnosis and prescribed antibiotics were collected from both inpatient and outpatient case reports for a one-month period in five publi...

BACKGROUND Laboratory studies have suggested that antibiotic resistance may result in decreased fitness in the bacteria that harbor it. Observational studies have supported this, but due to ethical and practical considerations, it is rare to have experimental control over antibiotic prescription rates. METHODS AND FINDINGS We analyze data from a 54-month longitudinal trial that monitored pneu...