Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
2
pubmed:dateCreated
2002-2-27
pubmed:abstractText
The Analyse Infections Respiratoires (AIR) II study is a prospective, multicentre survey of the management of lower respiratory tract infections in patients aged 15-65 yrs by general practitioners (GPs) in France. To obtain real-time data recording, practitioners were required to submit an anonymous copy of their drug prescriptions. They were then interviewed over the telephone about the patients' sociodemographic data, signs and symptoms, as well as their presumptive diagnosis and the investigations they had decided upon. GPs (n=3,144) reported 5,469 evaluable cases. Pneumonia accounted for 9.6% of diagnoses, acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis 14.9% and acute bronchitis 72.5%. The symptomatology covered an extremely wide range of clinical features, which, although statistically different in terms of incidence, overlapped to a large extent across diagnoses. By contrast, hospitalization, investigations or referral to a specialist were much more prevalent in pneumonia, although still very infrequent in general terms (0.5, 1.2 and 10.8%, respectively). Antibiotics were prescribed in 96.5% of patients, with minor differences between diagnoses. However, other medications such as nonsteroid, anti-inflammatory drugs, steroids, nonspecific antitussives and bronchial liquefiers accounted for two-thirds of the prescriptions. This study demonstrates the lower respiratory tract infections encountered by general practitioners are usually mild. However, antibiotic prescription was more systematic than in previous studies and the prescription of nonspecific symptomatic treatments was twice as frequent. General practitioners did not perform additional examinations or refer on a regular basis. There was a high prescription rate for symptomatic treatment.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Feb
pubmed:issn
0903-1936
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
19
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
314-9
pubmed:dateRevised
2006-11-15
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2002
pubmed:articleTitle
Management of lower respiratory tract infections by French general practitioners: the AIR II study. Analyse Infections Respiratoires.
pubmed:affiliation
H?pital du Haut Lévêque, Bordeaux, France.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Multicenter Study