POCT to Reduce Antibiotics for LRTI in Older Adults in Primary Care

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Point of Care Testing to Reduce Unnecessary Antibiotic Use for Lower Respiratory Tract Infections in Older Adults in Primary Care: A Randomised Feasibility Trial

• IRAS ID

  341760

• Contact name

  Mark Lown

• Contact email

  m.lown@soton.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Southampton

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 8 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  One of the main reasons for GPs prescribing antibiotics is for flu-like illnesses such as chest infections. Antibiotics are only work against bacteria. However, most chest infections are caused by viruses. This means a lot of prescribed antibiotics are not needed. This happens even more for older adults, as they are more likely to have another infection caused by a bacteria.
  Prescribing too many antibiotics is harmful as it can stop them working due to resistance, making it harder to treat chest infections in the future. Unnecessary antibiotics can also be bad for the patient because they may get unwanted side effects from taking them. Because of this, antibiotics should only be given when necessary.
  Right now, it can be very hard to tell what chest infections are caused by a bacteria or a virus. Point-of-care testing can be used to help find out if a bacteria or a virus is causing a chest infection and help GPs know if they should prescribe antibiotics. For example, if a point-of-care test is done during an appointment and is positive for a bacteria, then the GP will have a better idea if antibiotics are needed.
  This trial will see whether it is possible to conduct a trial investigating if using point-of-care tests can reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescribing for chest infections. This will be a small, feasibility study to see if a bigger study is possible. While some data will be gathered about antibiotic prescribing, the study will mainly focus on recruitment, follow up rate, opinions from clinicians and participants, and how well the trial protocol works in practice. By doing this research, we will be one step closer to performing a study to understand how point-of-care testing would work in primary care

• REC name

  East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 1

• REC reference

  24/ES/0077

• Date of REC Opinion

  11 Nov 2024

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion