General practitioners' patterns of antimicrobial drugs prescription in the therapy of acute pharyngitis

Objective - To analyse the patterns of antibiotic prescription in the treatment of acute pharyngitis among a group of general practitioners (GPs). Design - From the records of their patients, 11 specialists in general practice have collected post hoc data on their patients and on acute pharyngitis in the period from October 1, 1994 to September 30, 1995. Setting - 11 teaching practices in four health centres in Zagreb, Croatia. Subjects - GPs grouped according to whether they had pre-school children in their care. Main outcome measures - The choice and cost of the prescribed antimicrobial drug, and the impact of the characteristics of the population in care to the prescription rate and structure. Results - An antimicrobial drug was prescribed in 784 (72.1%) cases of pharyngitis. Two groups of GPs have shown significant differences in the prescription rate (p < 0.001), and in the choice of antimicrobial drugs (p < 0.001). Conclusion - GPs with a larger number of patients ill their care suffering from chronic diseases tend to prescribe antimicrobial drugs more often in the treatment of acute pharyngitis.