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Angus Reid Physician Survey on Antibiotics

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The Angus Reid physician survey was conducted between January 17th and February 4th, 2000 and included 200 interviews with randomly recruited Canadian General Practitioners. The objective of the survey was to research physicians' attitudes toward their antibiotic prescribing practices, to determine whether there have been significant changes in the last three years, since the launch of NIPA in 1996.

Key findings:

During the past three years, 79% of GPs have changed their antibiotic prescribing practices to treat respiratory symptoms.
- Of these, 11% of GPs have changed their prescribing practices so that they prescribe fewer antibiotics because "overuse causes resistance".
- Of these, 25% of GPs have changed their prescribing practices because they feel that better antibiotics are available and/or are more effective.
With regard to respiratory symptoms, 18% of GPs say their patients have requested antibiotics to treat respiratory symptoms less frequently in the past three years.
50% of GPs say that in the past three years their patients have become more concerned about taking an antibiotic, with regard to respiratory symptoms.
Also, with regard to respiratory symptoms, 44% of GPs say that during the past three years, patients have inquired more frequently about the issue of antibiotic resistance.
With respect to patients understanding the difference between various types of infections, such as viral versus bacterial infections, 52% of GPs say their patients do not understand the difference very well (43%) or not at all (9%).
When asked where GPs encountered new information about the appropriate use of antibiotics, or antibiotic resistance during the past three years, the following results were most significant:
- 76% of GPs encountered new information from medical journal articles
- 38% of GPs encountered new information from continuing medical education events
- 42% of GPs encountered new information from conferences/lectures
- 34% of GPs encountered new information from pharmaceutical company representatives

(All data was collected via Angus Reid's GP omnibus survey. Final data is weighted to reflect actual regional distributions. A sample of this size carries an associated margin of error or +/-6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.)