Prevalence of and Factors Associated with Antibiotic Prescriptions in Patients with Acute Lower and Upper Respiratory Tract Infections—A Case-Control Study

: Background: The goal of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of patient and physician related variables associated with antibiotic prescriptions in patients diagnosed with acute lower and upper respiratory tract infections (ALURTI), treated in general practices (GP) and pediatric practices, in Germany. Methods: The analysis included 1,140,095 adult individuals in 1237 general practices and 309,059 children and adolescents in 236 pediatric practices, from the Disease Analyzer database (IQVIA), who had received at least one diagnosis of an ALURTI between January 1, 2015 and March 31, 2019. We estimated the association between 35 predefined variables and antibiotic prescription using multivariate logistic regression models, separately for general and pediatric practices. The variables included the proportion (as a percentage) of antibiotics or phytopharmaceuticals on all prescriptions per practice, as an indicator of physician prescription preference. Results: The prevalence of antibiotic prescription was higher in patients treated in GP (31.2%) than in pediatric practices (9.1%). In GP, the strongest association with antibiotic prescription was seen in the practice preference for antibiotic use, followed by specific diagnoses (acute bronchitis, sinusitis, pharyngitis, laryngitis, and tracheitis), and higher patient age. In pediatric practices, acute sinusitis and bronchitis were the variables with the strongest association, followed by practice preference for antibiotic prescription. The strongest association with the non-prescription of antibiotics was practice preference for phytopharmaceuticals and the specific diagnosis of a viral infection. Conclusion: This study shows a high prevalence of antibiotic prescribing for patients with ALURTI in a primary care setting, especially in adult patients; physician related factors play an important role that should be addressed in interventions to reduce potentially inappropriate antibiotic prescribing.

Seeing is Believing: Religious Media Consumption and Public Opinion toward Same-Sex Relationships

An extensive literature demonstrates that religion is a key determinant of Americans’ social and political attitudes. This literature, however, has neglected an important measure of everyday religious practice, preference, and socialization: religious media consumption. We take a key social issue where attitudes have been shown to be largely shaped by religion—same-sex relationships—as an example to determine whether religious media consumption predicts social attitudes net of the measures typically included in the literature on religion and attitudes: affiliation, practice, and literalism. We draw on data from three national surveys, each of which contains different measures of religious media consumption and attitudes toward various same-sex relationships: the 1998 General Social Survey, 2005 Baylor Religion Survey, and 2012 Portraits of American Life Study. Both multivariate and propensity score matching analyses demonstrate that religious media consumption independently predicts lower support for same-sex relationships in all three surveys. We propose that religious media consumption is a key measure of religious practice, preference, and socialization that shapes Americans’ views toward social issues through both direct messages and by fortifying subcultural boundaries.

Seeing Is Believing: Religious Media Consumption and Public Opinion toward Same-sex Relationships

An extensive literature demonstrates that religion is a key determinant of Americans’ social and political attitudes. This literature, however, has neglected an important measure of everyday religious practice, preference, and socialization: religious media consumption. We take a key social issue where attitudes have been shown to be largely shaped by religion—same-sex relationships—as an example to determine whether religious media consumption predicts social attitudes net of the measures typically included in the literature on religion and attitudes: affiliation, practice, and literalism. We draw on data from three national surveys, each of which contains different measures of religious media consumption and attitudes toward various same-sex relationships: the 1998 General Social Survey, 2005 Baylor Religion Survey, and 2012 Portraits of American Life Study. Both multivariate and propensity score matching analyses demonstrate that religious media consumption independently predicts lower support for same-sex relationships in all three surveys. We propose that religious media consumption is a key measure of religious practice, preference, and socialization that shapes Americans’ views toward social issues through both direct messages and by fortifying subcultural boundaries.

Therapeutic Practice Preference in Dentistry: Antibiotics, Analgesics and Antiseptics

Objective: Present study was aimed to find out the commonest medicines used in dentistry as preferred by dental practitioners in Nepal. Materials and Methods: Seventy pre-structured questionnaires were distributed to the dental practitioners. Questionnaire was designed to evaluate the use of the antimicrobial, analgesic and antiseptic agents. A total of three open ended questions were included in each questionnaire to know the preference of dental practitioners for different medicines used in dentistry. Yates corrected Chi square test was used wherever applicable and level of significance was set at 5%. Results: Amoxicillin (89.4%, P<0.05), metronidazole (57.8%), amoxicillin with clavulanic acid (21%) and doxycycline (26.2%) were the most frequently preferred antibiotics of first, second, third and fourth choice respectively. Similarly, among analgesics, ibuprofen (52.6%), diclofenac (31.5%), paracetamol (47.3%) and nimesulide (24.5%) had the highest predilection for first, second, third and fourth choice respectively among the dental practitioners. Chlorhexidine (77.2%, P<0.05)) was the most selected antiseptic for the first choice followed by listerine for the second (31.5%) and third (43.8%) choice. Conclusion: First choice antibiotic, analgesic and antiseptic are amoxicillin, ibuprofen and chlorhexidine respectively among the majority of dental practitioners. Asian Journal of Medical Science, Volume-4 (2013), Pages 17-23 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ajms.v4i4.8062