Are Sore Throat Patients Who Hope For Antibiotics Actually Asking For Pain Relief
Are Sore Throat Patients Who Hope For Antibiotics Actually Asking For Pain Relief
2
Department of General Practice, Centre
for Health Services Research, Cardiff
University, Cardiff, UK
3
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE Antibiotics are still overprescribed for self-limiting upper respiratory
tract infections such as acute sore throat, and physicians mention patients desire
for antibiotics as a driving force. We studied patients concerns when visiting
their family physician for acute sore throat, more specifically the importance they
attach to antibiotic treatment and pain relief.
METHODS Family physicians in 6 peer groups in Belgium participated in an
observational postvisit questionnaire survey. Patients aged 12 years and older
making an office visit for acute sore throat were invited to indicate the importance of different reasons for the visit.
RESULTS Sixty-eight family physicians provided data from 298 patients. The 3
most frequently endorsed reasons for visiting the physician were examination to
establish the cause of the symptoms, pain relief, and information on the course
of the disease. Hopes for an antibiotic ranked 11th of 13 items. Patients who
considered antibiotics very/rather important valued pain relief significantly more
than patients who considered them little/not important (P <.001). Patients who
hoped for antibiotics felt more unwell (P <.001), had more faith in antibiotics
to speed recovery (P <.001), and were less convinced that sore throat was a
self-limiting disease (P <.012). A multivariate model, adjusted for age, sex, and
educational status, showed that the desire for pain relief is a strong predictor of
the hope to receive a prescription for antibiotics.
CONCLUSION Our study suggests that patients with acute sore throat and who
hope for antibiotics may in fact want treatment for pain. Trials are needed to test
whether exploring patients expectations about pain management and offering
adequate analgesia can assist physicians in managing sore throats without prescribing antibiotics.
Ann Fam Med 2007;4:494-499. DOI: 10.1370/afm.609.
INTRODUCTION
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
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METHODS
Patients and Setting
Six local peer groups of family physicians were randomly selected from a total of 169 eligible groups in
2 Belgian provinces. These groups of 8 to 25 family
physicians meet at least 4 times yearly to discuss items
aimed at improving quality of patient care. All 6 peer
groups agreed to participate in a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. During a 6-week period from May
2002 to September 2002, participating physicians were
asked to invite consecutive unaccompanied patients
aged 12 years and older whose main reason for a visit
was an acute sore throat to participate. By recruiting
patients during the ofce visit through their family
physician, those visiting for other reasons (eg, common cold) could be excluded. Patients lled out the
questionnaire in the waiting room immediately after
the ofce visit and deposited the anonymous coded
and sealed questionnaires in a box provided by the
researchers. The questionnaires were condential, and
the physicians did not have access to the contents.
Measurements
Patients were asked to rate the importance of 13 reasons for visiting their family physician on a 4-point
Likert scale (very, rather, little, or not important).
The list included 8 items from a validated questionnaire.18,19 The remaining 5 items were selected by an
expert group of 6 family physicians on the basis of
their relevance to our study question: an item referring
to pain relief (I want Dr to give me something for the
pain), an explicit wish for an antibiotic, a request for
an attestation to justify legitimate absence from work
or school, a wish for explanation of possible treatments, and a wish for information on expected illness
duration. In addition, patients were asked to rate the
severity of their disease on a 100-mm visual analogue
ANNALS O F FAMILY MED ICINE
RESULTS
A total of 298 questionnaires were completed by patients visiting 68 family physicians. The mean number of patients per family physician was 4.4 (range
1-9). The mean age of the respondents was 36.7 (SD
15.8) years, 40.9% were male, 54.7% were employed,
31.8% had completed higher education (9 to 12 years
after primary school), 32.6% had completed 3 years of
secondary education, 7.4% had only primary education, and 28.2% were students. Most (84.4%) patients
reported having a throat infection, and a similar proportion (86.5%) had a diagnosis as such by their family
physician.
What Do Patients Want?
Reasons for visiting were ranked according to the
number of patients endorsing an item as very/rather
important. The 3 most highly endorsed reasons for a
physician visit were an examination to establish the
cause of the symptoms, to obtain pain relief, and to
gain information on the course of the disease. More
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Table 1. Importance of Different Reasons for Consulting the Family Physician With
a Sore Throat in the Total Population and in the Subgroups of Patients Who Consider
Antibiotics Very/Rather Important or Little/Not Important
Antibiotics
Very/Rather
Important
(n = 106)
Total
Population
(n = 298)
Reason for Visit
Antibiotics
Little/Not
Important
(n = 176)
85.5
90.5
83.0
84.5
97.1
81.8
82.7
79.8
84.4
76.4
79.0
75.0
75.7
82.7
70.9
73.2
69.5
75.4
57.5
61.5
55.7
53.2
60.2
49.7
49.6
51.0
10
49.1
39.9
10
53.5
31.0
10
I want an antibiotic
37.6
11
NA
NA
NA
NA
21.2
12
30.0
11
16.6
11
18.4
13
27.2
12
13.4
12
OR
(95% CI)
1.95
(0.91-4.18)
7.56
(2.25-25.35)
0.73
(0.39-1.37)
1.26
(0.70-2.25)
1.97
(1.08-3.59)
0.74
(0.43-1.28)
1.27
(0.77-2.09)
1.53
(0.93-2.51)
1.08
(0.66-1.75)
2.56
(1.54-4.25)
NA
2.16
(1.20-3.87)
2.42
(1.30-4.48)
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P
Value*
.117
<.001
.417
.529
.038
.347
.412
.117
.865
<.001
NA
.014
.007
S O R E T H R OAT A N D A N T I B I O T I C S
Variable
I want to be examined for the cause of my
sore throat
I want Dr to give me something for the pain
2.45 (0.81-7.44)
6.44 (1.16-35.73)
1.21 (0.50-2.95)
0.65 (0.28-1.52)
4.20 (1.82-9.68)
4.44 (1.48-13.27)
1.03 (0.32-3.27)
1.00 (0.99-1.02)
4.03 (1.71-9.50)
Age of patient
1.01 (0.98-1.04)
Male patient
0.60 (0.28-1.29)
1.01 (0.87-1.16)
3.52 (1.44-8.57)
DISCUSSION
We found that pain relief was an important concern
of patients with an acute sore throat who visited their
family physician. Moreover, patients who hoped to
receive a prescription for an antibiotic were even more
concerned about pain relief compared with patients
who considered an antibiotic little/not important. The
relationship between importance of pain relief and
the wish for an antibiotic was even stronger than the
expected relationship with the patients belief in antibiotics to speed recovery, and this relationship remained,
even when adjusting for other factors (eg, self-assessed
illness severity, antibiotic prescription, belief in antibiotics, and need to legitimize the illness episode).
This nding indicates that adequate analgesia may be
a more important reason for seeking medical care than
receiving an antibiotic, and suggests that patients who
hope for an antibiotic may, in fact, want a treatment to
alleviate pain. Indeed, they may believe that antibiotics
are the best treatment for pain in acute sore throat.
A limitation of our study is the use of a postvisit
questionnaire. The patients expectations may have
been inuenced by what happened during the physician visit. Our data showed such could be the case for
antibiotics, as patients who strongly valued an antibiotic
were more likely to receive a prescription for an antibiotic. Including this variable in the regression model,
however, did not substantially change our ndings.
Patients hope for pain relief remained the strongest predictor of hoping for an antibiotic. Other research using
both pre- and postvisit questionnaires has shown that
ANNALS O F FAMILY MED ICINE
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