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Exploring Patient Awareness and Perceptions of the Appropriate Use of Antibiotics: A Mixed-Methods Study

In the outpatient setting, estimates suggest that 30% of the antibiotics prescribed are unnecessary. This study explores patient knowledge and awareness of appropriate use of antibiotics and expectations regarding how antibiotics are used for their treatment in outpatient settings. A survey was admi...

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Autores principales: Davis, Marion E., Liu, Tsai-Ling, Taylor, Yhenneko J., Davidson, Lisa, Schmid, Monica, Yates, Traci, Scotton, Janice, Spencer, Melanie D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5745466/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29088074
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics6040023
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author Davis, Marion E.
Liu, Tsai-Ling
Taylor, Yhenneko J.
Davidson, Lisa
Schmid, Monica
Yates, Traci
Scotton, Janice
Spencer, Melanie D.
author_facet Davis, Marion E.
Liu, Tsai-Ling
Taylor, Yhenneko J.
Davidson, Lisa
Schmid, Monica
Yates, Traci
Scotton, Janice
Spencer, Melanie D.
author_sort Davis, Marion E.
collection PubMed
description In the outpatient setting, estimates suggest that 30% of the antibiotics prescribed are unnecessary. This study explores patient knowledge and awareness of appropriate use of antibiotics and expectations regarding how antibiotics are used for their treatment in outpatient settings. A survey was administered to a convenience sample of patients, parents, and caregivers (n = 190) at seven primary care clinics and two urgent care locations. Fisher’s exact tests compared results by patient characteristics. Although 89% of patients correctly believed that antibiotics work well for treating infections from bacteria, 53% incorrectly believed that antibiotics work well for treating viral infections. Patients who incorrectly believed that antibiotics work well for treating viral infections were more than twice as likely to expect a provider to give them an antibiotic when they have a cough or common cold. Patients who completed the survey also participated in semi-structured interviews (n = 4), which were analyzed using thematic analysis. Patients reported experiencing confusion about which illnesses may be treated by antibiotics and unclear communication from clinicians about the appropriate use of antibiotics. Development of easy to understand patient educational materials can help address patients’ incorrect perceptions of appropriate antibiotic use and facilitate patient-provider communication.
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spelling pubmed-57454662018-01-02 Exploring Patient Awareness and Perceptions of the Appropriate Use of Antibiotics: A Mixed-Methods Study Davis, Marion E. Liu, Tsai-Ling Taylor, Yhenneko J. Davidson, Lisa Schmid, Monica Yates, Traci Scotton, Janice Spencer, Melanie D. Antibiotics (Basel) Article In the outpatient setting, estimates suggest that 30% of the antibiotics prescribed are unnecessary. This study explores patient knowledge and awareness of appropriate use of antibiotics and expectations regarding how antibiotics are used for their treatment in outpatient settings. A survey was administered to a convenience sample of patients, parents, and caregivers (n = 190) at seven primary care clinics and two urgent care locations. Fisher’s exact tests compared results by patient characteristics. Although 89% of patients correctly believed that antibiotics work well for treating infections from bacteria, 53% incorrectly believed that antibiotics work well for treating viral infections. Patients who incorrectly believed that antibiotics work well for treating viral infections were more than twice as likely to expect a provider to give them an antibiotic when they have a cough or common cold. Patients who completed the survey also participated in semi-structured interviews (n = 4), which were analyzed using thematic analysis. Patients reported experiencing confusion about which illnesses may be treated by antibiotics and unclear communication from clinicians about the appropriate use of antibiotics. Development of easy to understand patient educational materials can help address patients’ incorrect perceptions of appropriate antibiotic use and facilitate patient-provider communication. MDPI 2017-10-31 /pmc/articles/PMC5745466/ /pubmed/29088074 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics6040023 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Davis, Marion E.
Liu, Tsai-Ling
Taylor, Yhenneko J.
Davidson, Lisa
Schmid, Monica
Yates, Traci
Scotton, Janice
Spencer, Melanie D.
Exploring Patient Awareness and Perceptions of the Appropriate Use of Antibiotics: A Mixed-Methods Study
title Exploring Patient Awareness and Perceptions of the Appropriate Use of Antibiotics: A Mixed-Methods Study
title_full Exploring Patient Awareness and Perceptions of the Appropriate Use of Antibiotics: A Mixed-Methods Study
title_fullStr Exploring Patient Awareness and Perceptions of the Appropriate Use of Antibiotics: A Mixed-Methods Study
title_full_unstemmed Exploring Patient Awareness and Perceptions of the Appropriate Use of Antibiotics: A Mixed-Methods Study
title_short Exploring Patient Awareness and Perceptions of the Appropriate Use of Antibiotics: A Mixed-Methods Study
title_sort exploring patient awareness and perceptions of the appropriate use of antibiotics: a mixed-methods study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5745466/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29088074
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics6040023
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