Management of upper respiratory tract infection by family doctors

The prescribing behaviour of family doctors in Hong Kong towards upper resp iratory tract infections (URTIs) and the factors that might affect such beh aviour were studied. All 1016 members of the Hong Kong College of Family Ph ysicians were sent a postal questionnaire. A total of 730 family doctors co mpleted the questionnaire, with an overall response rate of 71.8%. Doctors who were older, more senior, or in private practice were more likely to thi nk antibiotics were useful for URTIs and to prescribe them. These doctors w ere also more likely to think their patients would expect antibiotics from them. Postgraduate vocational training in general practice/family medicine helped make family doctors think fewer patients would expect antibiotics fr om them but did not affect their perception of the usefulness of antibiotic s for URTIs. Our results showed that doctors with certain characteristics w ere more likely to prescribe antibiotics for URTIs and these doctors may be targeted for continued medical education.