Reducing variation in antibacterial prescribing rates for ‘cough/cold’ and sore throat between 1993 and 2001: Regional analyses using the general practice research database

SummaryObjective the General Practice Research Database (GPRD) to explore the regional variation in prescribing for single diagnostic episodes of ‘cough/cold’ and sore throat and how this changed between 1993 and 2001. s rom the GPRD was used to conduct a longitudinal survey of morbidity and antibiotic prescribing data. s ally there has been a substantial reduction in diagnosed episodes per 1000 patient years at risk for both diagnoses: from 104.6 (104.0–105.2) to 86.5 (86.0–86.9) for cough/cold (−17.3%) and from 102.8 (102.2–103.4) to 69.2 (68.8–69.6) for sore throat (−32.6%). In addition to the changes in diagnostic rate there have been reductions in diagnosis-related prescribing: from 41.8% to 34.8% of cough/cold episodes (−7.0%) and from 77.3% to 60.8% of sore throat episodes (−16.4%). These aggregated data conceal wide regional variations. For cough/cold the change in prescribing rate during the study varied from −16.0% to +5.3% and for sore throat from −28.3% to −7.3%. sions ition to a substantial reduction in diagnosis of cough/cold and sore throat, there has been a reduction in diagnosis-related prescribing episodes in almost all regions. Although there continues to be regional variation in diagnosis-related prescribing this has reduced substantially over the 9-year study period.