NCT03582072

CMO Letter to Reduce Unnecessary Antibiotic Prescribing March 2018

Contacting GPs to Reduce Unnecessary Prescriptions of Antibiotics

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 4,796 (actual)
• Sponsor: Public Health England · Other Government
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This trial aims to reduce unnecessary prescription of antibiotics by general practitioners (GPs) in England. Unnecessary prescriptions are defined as those that do not improve patient health outcomes. The intervention is to send GPs a letter from the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) that gives feedback on their practice's prescribing levels. Specifically, GPs in practices whose prescribing has increase by more than 4% over the past year will receive a letter stating that "The great majority (80%) of practices in England reduced or stabilised their antibiotic prescribing rates in 2016/17. However, your practice is in the minority that have increased their prescribing by more than 4%." The letter will also contain a leaflet to help GPs discuss self-care advice with patients and some advice to use delayed prescriptions. The investigators hypothesize that the antibiotic prescribing rate in will be lower for the treatment group compared to the control group, following the receipt of the letter.

Detailed description

The investigators hypothesize that the antibiotic prescribing rate in will be lower for the treatment group compared to the control group; the statistical analysis will compare prescribing in March, April, and over the summer (treating May-September as a single data point).

Conditions

• Prescribing, Off-Label

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	letter from the CMO	informed GPs that: The great majority (80%) of practices in England reduced or stabilised their antibiotic prescribing rates in 2016/17. However, your practice is in the minority that have increased their prescribing by more than 4%.\*

Timeline

• Start date: 2018-02-27
• Primary completion: 2018-12-31
• Completion: 2018-12-31
• First posted: 2018-07-10
• Last updated: 2020-03-03

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United Kingdom