<p><strong>Background: </strong>Outpatient antibiotic stewardship is needed to reduce inappropriate prescribing and minimize the development of resistant bacteria. We assessed primary care physicians' perceptions of antibiotic resistance, antibiotic use, and the need for stewardship activities.</p>
<p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a national online survey of 1550 internal, family, and pediatric medicine physicians in the United States recruited from an opt-in panel of healthcare professionals. Descriptive statistics were generated for respondent demographics and question responses. Responses were also stratified by geographic region and medical specialty, with a χ test used to assess for differences.</p>
<p><strong>Results: </strong>More respondents agreed that antibiotic resistance was a problem in the United States (94%) than in their practice (55%) and that inappropriate antibiotic prescribing was a problem in outpatient settings (91%) than in their practice (37%). In addition, 60% agreed that they prescribed antibiotics more appropriately than their peers. Most respondents (91%) believed that antibiotic stewardship was appropriate in office-based practices, but they ranked antibiotic resistance as less important than other public health issues such as obesity, diabetes, opioids, smoking, and vaccine hesitancy. Approximately half (47%) believed they would need a lot of help to implement stewardship. Respondents indicated that they were likely to implement antibiotic stewardship efforts in response to feedback or incentives provided by payers or health departments.</p>
<p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Primary care physicians generally did not recognize antibiotic resistance and inappropriate prescribing as issues in their practice. This poses a challenge for the success of outpatient stewardship. Healthcare stakeholders will need to explore opportunities for feedback and incentive activities to encourage stewardship uptake.</p>
<p><strong>OBJECTIVES: </strong>At least 30% of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions are unnecessary. Outpatient antibiotic stewardship is needed to improve prescribing and address the threat of antibiotic resistance. A better understanding of primary care physicians (PCPs) attitudes towards antibiotic prescribing and outpatient antibiotic stewardship is needed to identify barriers to stewardship implementation and help tailor stewardship strategies. The aim of this study was to assess PCPs current attitudes towards antibiotic resistance, inappropriate antibiotic prescribing and the feasibility of outpatient stewardship efforts.</p>
<p><strong>DESIGN: </strong>Eight focus groups with PCPs were conducted by an independent moderator using a moderator guide. Focus groups were audio recorded, transcribed and coded for major themes using deductive and inductive content analysis methods.</p>
<p><strong>SETTING: </strong>Focus groups were conducted in four US cities: Philadelphia, Birmingham, Chicago and Los Angeles.</p>
<p><strong>PARTICIPANTS: </strong>Two focus groups were conducted in each city-one with family medicine and internal medicine physicians and one with paediatricians. A total of 26 family medicine/internal medicine physicians and 26 paediatricians participated.</p>
<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Participants acknowledged that resistance is an important public health issue, but not as important as other pressing problems (eg, obesity, opioids). Many considered resistance to be more of a hospital issue. While participants recognised inappropriate prescribing as a problem in outpatient settings, many felt that the key drivers were non-primary care settings (eg, urgent care clinics, retail clinics) and patient demand. Participants reacted positively to stewardship efforts aimed at educating patients and clinicians. They questioned the validity of antibiotic prescribing metrics. This scepticism was due to a number of factors, including the feasibility of capturing prescribing quality, a belief that physicians will 'game the system' to improve their measures, and dissatisfaction and distrust of quality measurement in general.</p>
<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Stakeholders will need to consider physician attitudes and beliefs about antibiotic stewardship when implementing interventions aimed at improving prescribing.</p>
<p><strong>BACKGROUND: </strong>Perceived patient demand for antibiotics drives unnecessary antibiotic prescribing in outpatient settings, but little is known about how clinicians experience this demand or how this perceived demand shapes their decision-making.</p>
<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To identify how clinicians perceive patient demand for antibiotics and the way these perceptions stimulate unnecessary prescribing.</p>
<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with clinicians in outpatient settings who prescribe antibiotics. Interviews were analyzed using conventional and directed content analysis.</p>
<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Interviews were conducted with 25 clinicians from nine practices across three states. Patient demand was the most common reason respondents provided for why they prescribed non-indicated antibiotics. Three related factors motivated clinically unnecessary antibiotic use in the face of perceived patient demand: (i) clinicians want their patients to regard clinical visits as valuable and believe that an antibiotic prescription demonstrates value; (ii) clinicians want to avoid negative repercussions of denying antibiotics, including reduced income, damage to their reputation, emotional exhaustion, and degraded relationships with patients; (iii) clinicians believed that certain patients are impossible to satisfy without an antibiotic prescription and felt that efforts to refuse antibiotics to such patients wastes time and invites the aforementioned negative repercussions. Clinicians in urgent care settings were especially likely to describe being motivated by these factors.</p>
<p><strong>CONCLUSION: </strong>Interventions to improve antibiotic use in the outpatient setting must address clinicians' concerns about providing value for their patients, fear of negative repercussions from denying antibiotics, and the approach to inconvincible patients.</p>
<p><strong>IMPORTANCE: </strong>The National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria set a goal of reducing inappropriate outpatient antibiotic use by 50% by 2020, but the extent of inappropriate outpatient antibiotic use is unknown.</p>
<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To estimate the rates of outpatient oral antibiotic prescribing by age and diagnosis, and the estimated portions of antibiotic use that may be inappropriate in adults and children in the United States.</p>
<p><strong>DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: </strong>Using the 2010-2011 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, annual numbers and population-adjusted rates with 95% confidence intervals of ambulatory visits with oral antibiotic prescriptions by age, region, and diagnosis in the United States were estimated.</p>
<p><strong>EXPOSURES: </strong>Ambulatory care visits.</p>
<p><strong>MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: </strong>Based on national guidelines and regional variation in prescribing, diagnosis-specific prevalence and rates of total and appropriate antibiotic prescriptions were determined. These rates were combined to calculate an estimate of the appropriate annual rate of antibiotic prescriptions per 1000 population.</p>
<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Of the 184,032 sampled visits, 12.6% of visits (95% CI, 12.0%-13.3%) resulted in antibiotic prescriptions. Sinusitis was the single diagnosis associated with the most antibiotic prescriptions per 1000 population (56 antibiotic prescriptions [95% CI, 48-64]), followed by suppurative otitis media (47 antibiotic prescriptions [95% CI, 41-54]), and pharyngitis (43 antibiotic prescriptions [95% CI, 38-49]). Collectively, acute respiratory conditions per 1000 population led to 221 antibiotic prescriptions (95% CI, 198-245) annually, but only 111 antibiotic prescriptions were estimated to be appropriate for these conditions. Per 1000 population, among all conditions and ages combined in 2010-2011, an estimated 506 antibiotic prescriptions (95% CI, 458-554) were written annually, and, of these, 353 antibiotic prescriptions were estimated to be appropriate antibiotic prescriptions.</p>
<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: </strong>In the United States in 2010-2011, there was an estimated annual antibiotic prescription rate per 1000 population of 506, but only an estimated 353 antibiotic prescriptions were likely appropriate, supporting the need for establishing a goal for outpatient antibiotic stewardship.</p>