Influence of Clinical Communication on Parents’ Antibiotic Expectations for Children With Respiratory Tract Infections

The Article in Brief

Influence of Clinical Communication on Parents' Antibiotic Expectations for Children With Respiratory Tract Infections

Christie Cabral , and colleagues

Background The use of antibiotics is an important factor in antibiotic resistance, a major risk to health services. This study examines how clinician communication about antibiotics for respiratory tract infection influences parents' understanding and expectations of antibiotic treatment.

What This Study Found Clinician communication and prescribing behavior confirms parents' beliefs that antibiotics are needed to treat more severe illnesses. Clinicians offered minimal explanations of the diagnostic decision and used language that equated a viral diagnosis with less severe illness. This may explain why the public accepts that antibiotics do not treat viruses, but have unchanged antibiotic expectations for particular symptoms or particularly disruptive illnesses.

Implications

• Communication aimed at reducing antibiotic expectations, the authors suggest, would be more effective if it acknowledges that viral illness can be severe (e.g., in bronchitis or viral pneumonia) and that bacterial infections can be self-limiting.
• Clearer explanations of the symptoms and signs of a child's illness that indicate when antibiotics are and are not warranted could help reduce misconceptions.