Situations predisposing primary care patients to use antibiotics without a prescription in the United States

Abstract

Background: Patients' situations can impact their intentions to use antibiotics without medical guidance (non-prescription use) in the future. This survey determines the prevalence of intended (future) use of non-prescription antibiotics for 13 predefined situations and identifies the sociodemographic characteristics associated with intended use for these types of situations.

Methods: Patient surveys (N = 564) were conducted from January 2020 to June 2021 in the waiting rooms of 6 safety-net primary care clinics and 2 emergency departments in a private healthcare system. We used principal component analysis to identify 3 situational summary factors: barriers to a doctor visit, accessibility of non-prescription antibiotics, and previous symptom relief with antibiotics. Multivariate linear regression identified the sociodemographic predictors associated with each summary factor.

Results: The most common situations triggering patients to use non-prescription antibiotics were a perceived high cost of doctor visits (29.8%), having leftover prescription antibiotics (50.4%), and experiencing symptom relief with prior use of antibiotics (47.5%). Multivariate regression results revealed that younger patients (P < 0.04) and patients attending the safety-net health system (P < 0.001) had more intended use of non-prescription antibiotics for all 3 summary factors.

Conclusions: Future stewardship interventions should consider the types of situations that drive patients' decisions to use antibiotics without a prescription. Interventions aimed at reducing barriers to health care (eg, high costs and long waits associated with doctor appointments) and educating individuals on medically appropriate, nonantibiotic treatment options may reduce antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance.