Practitioners' belief that 'patients want antibiotics' could be driving overuse in India: Study

New Delhi, Sep 10 (PTI) A belief that "patients want antibiotics" could be driving healthcare providers in India to overprescribe antibiotics, and not a motive of profit or lack of education, according to a new study in India.

However, in a separate experiment, researchers, including those from the University of Southern California in the US, the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and New Delhi-based research institute NEERMAN, also found that patients do not prefer practitioners who prescribe antibiotics.

The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, suggest that a healthcare provider's misconceptions about a patient's preferences may need to be addressed for reducing overuse of antibiotics, especially prevalent in low- and middle-income countries.

An overuse of antibiotics is a major driver of antimicrobial resistance, in which a bacterium develops over time after repeated exposure to antibiotics designed to kill it.

The study analysed data gathered from making over 2,000 anonymous visits to healthcare providers, in which a patient pretended to seek care for a child's diarrhoea infection.

Interview responses of 2,282 providers -- pharmacists, rural medical practitioners, those with an MBBS degree and traditional medicine practitioners -- operating in 253 towns across Karnataka and Bihar were also evaluated.

Seventy per cent of the providers were found to prescribe antibiotics instead of oral rehydration salts, the recommended correct treatment, without an indication of bacterial infection.

The practitioners assumed that patients would doubt their credibility if they did not order antibiotics, the researchers said, adding that they did not make this choice because of profit or lack of education.

When patients in the study expressed a preference for rehydration treatment, prescribing antibiotics decreased by 20 per cent.

The researchers also assessed what a patient prefers by surveying 1,189 caretakers who had visited a provider for their child's diarrhoea.

Patients do not actually prefer providers who give antibiotics, the team found.

"Using randomised experiments, we revealed that the know-do gap stems from providers' beliefs that patients want antibiotics, not from profit motives or lack of alternative treatments," the authors wrote.

"Yet, a discrete choice experiment suggests patients do not prefer providers who give antibiotics," they added.

Antibiotic resistance is a pressing health concern, estimated to claim the lives of 39 million people worldwide by 2050, according to a 2024 study published in The Lancet journal. PTI KRS KRS KSS KSS