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Did local enhancement of a national campaign to reduce high antibiotic prescribing affect public attitudes and prescribing rates?
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Parsons, Suzanne, Morrow, Sharon and Underwood, Martin (2004) Did local enhancement of a national campaign to reduce high antibiotic prescribing affect public attitudes and prescribing rates? European Journal of General Practice, 10 (1). pp. 18-23. doi:10.3109/13814780409094222 ISSN 1381-4788.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/13814780409094222
Abstract
Objectives: Due to concerns about both costs and drug esistance, reducing antibiotic prescribing is a strategic aim for the UK National Health Service. A nationwide public education campaign launched in October 1999 (CATNAP) addressed this. The objectives were 1) to assess public attitudes to antibiotic use in a district with high antibiotic prescribing where a nationwide public education campaign was locally enhanced, 2) to assess the impact of the campaign on prescribing of antibiotics locally. Design: 1) Questionnaire survey to test the hypothesis that public attitudes would be equivalent before and after local enhancement of the national campaign. 2) Prescribing data analysis to assess the impact of the campaign on prescribing of antibiotics. Setting: London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Outcome measures: 1) Differences in public attitudes to antibiotic prescribing pre and post the locally enhanced campaign. 2) Changes in prescribing rates pre and post the locally enhanced campaign. Results: 1) Response rates in questionnaire study: 45% (442/982) initially, 42% (815/1941) at follow-up. Responses to all general questions were equivalent in both surveys. There was considerable misunderstanding amongst the population about the effectiveness of antibiotics, particularly in relation to viral infections, colds, sore throats and coughs. The proportion of responders who believed that children should be prescribed antibiotics for a fever was not equivalent in the two surveys, it decreased from 56 to 49%, the limit of the one-sided confidence interval was 13.5%. 2) The rate of change in prescriptions dispensed between 1998/9 and 1999/2000 was not significantly different from that expected, based on the previous four years, in either England and Wales or Barking and Dagenham. Conclusion: Using this study design and this method of locally enhancing a public education campaign, the locally enhanced campaign did not appear to influence the public's attitudes towards antibiotic prescribing in an area of high prescribing. Assessment of the attitudes of those who had definitely been exposed to the campaign and greater promotion of the campaign and its messages to, and by, GPs might be more likely to produce a demonstrable change in attitudes.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Subjects: | R Medicine > R Medicine (General) | ||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Clinical Trials Unit Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School |
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Journal or Publication Title: | European Journal of General Practice | ||||
Publisher: | Informa Healthcare | ||||
ISSN: | 1381-4788 | ||||
Official Date: | 1 March 2004 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 10 | ||||
Number: | 1 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 18-23 | ||||
DOI: | 10.3109/13814780409094222 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 20 July 2018 |
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