April 23, 2015
The Question
Does giving feedback to clinicians on their own antibiotic prescription result in any change in their antibiotic prescription habits?
What we found
The intervention, where information on prescription patterns was provided to antibiotic prescribers, was conducted in 33 different units of a tertiary care center with a control and an intervention arm. Statistical analysis indicated that the intervention did not elicit any effect on the antibiotic prescribing practices of the physicians: low prescribers continued to prescribe antibiotics at a low rate, and high prescribers continued to prescribe at a high rate.
Why it matters
The growing problem of antibiotic resistance in hospitals has prompted many measures to enhance antimicrobial stewardship. Although previous studies of intervention through feedback have shown significant in inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions, such an outcome not observed in this study. This may be attributable to the resource poor setting of this study in India. Thus this study is the first from India on the effectiveness of a feedback intervention program to physicians of their own prescription habits in a hospital setting. The results indicate that since passive intervention did not elicit desirable behavioral change in the physicians, the possibility of direct interaction with the prescribers to reduce antimicrobial consumption may be more effective, at least in our setting.
