Why Are Antibiotics Prescribed for Patients With Acute Bronchitis?
This study asks the question of providers, despite multiple studies showing no benefit to using antibiotics in acute bronchitis, why are antibiotics still being prescribed? The answer? They don’t really know!! No patterns were detected based on signs and symptoms, so the authors concluded that it must be due to “other factors, such as nonclinical cues…” What is that? Maybe the Merck rep bought lunch that day…
J Am Board Fam Pract 13(6):398-402, 2000 Thirty-five (26%) patients received antibiotics for their acute bronchitis. Adults were more likely to receive antibiotics than children (34% vs 3%, P < .001). Analysis of 20 different symptoms and physical findings showed that symptoms and signs were poor predictors of antibiotic use. Likewise, no significant differences were found based on prescribing habits of individual providers or provider level of training. Conclusion: In a setting where antibiotic use for acute bronchitis had been decreased through an ongoing quality-improvement effort, it did not appear that providers selectively used antibiotics for patients with certain symptoms or signs. Other factors, such as nonclinical cues, might drive antibiotic prescribing even after clinical variation is suppressed.