General practitioners' patterns of antimicrobial drugs prescription in thetherapy of acute pharyngitis

Objective - To analyse the patterns of antibiotic prescription in the treat ment of acute pharyngitis among a group of general practitioners (GPs). Design - From the records of their patients, 11 specialists in general prac tice have collected post hoc data on their patients and on acute pharyngiti s 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 t he prescription rate and structure. Results - An antimicrobial drug was prescribed in 784 (72.1%) cases of phar yngitis. Two groups of GPs have shown significant differences in the prescr iption rate (p < 0.001), and in the choice of antimicrobial drugs (p < 0.00 1). Conclusion - GPs with a larger number of patients ill their care suffering from chronic diseases tend to prescribe antimicrobial drugs more often in t he treatment of acute pharyngitis.