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Overuse of antibiotics for the common cold – attitudes and behaviors among doctors in rural areas of Shandong Province, China

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology, March 2015
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (77th percentile)
  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (55th percentile)

Mentioned by

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1 policy source
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4 X users
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1 Google+ user

Citations

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76 Dimensions

Readers on

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106 Mendeley
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Title
Overuse of antibiotics for the common cold – attitudes and behaviors among doctors in rural areas of Shandong Province, China
Published in
BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology, March 2015
DOI 10.1186/s40360-015-0009-x
Pubmed ID
Authors

Qiang Sun, Oliver J Dyar, Lingbo Zhao, Göran Tomson, Lennart E Nilsson, Malin Grape, Yanyan Song, Ling Yan, Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg

Abstract

Irrational antibiotic use is common in rural areas of China, despite the growing recognition of the importance of appropriate prescribing to contain antibiotic resistance. The aim of this study was to analyze doctors' attitudes and prescribing practices related to antibiotics in rural areas of Shandong province, focusing on patients with the common cold. A survey was conducted with doctors working at thirty health facilities (village clinics, township health centers and county general hospitals) in three counties within Shandong province. Questions were included on knowledge and attitudes towards antibiotic prescribing. Separately, a random selection of prescriptions for patients with the common cold was collected from the healthcare institutions at which the doctors worked, to investigate actual prescribing behaviors. A total of 188 doctors completed the survey. Most doctors (83%, 149/180) had attended training on antibiotic use since the beginning of their medical practice as a doctor, irrespective of the academic level of their undergraduate training. Of those that had training, most had attended it within the past three years (97%, 112/116). Very few doctors (2%, 3/187) said they would give antibiotics to a patient with symptoms of a common cold, and the majority (87%, 156/179) would refuse to prescribe an antibiotic even if patients were insistent on getting them. Doctors who had attended training were less likely to give antibiotics in this circumstance (29% vs. 14%, p < 0.001). A diagnosis of common cold was the only diagnosis reported on 1590 out of 8400 prescriptions. Over half (55%, 869/1590) of them included an antibiotic. Prescriptions from village clinics were more likely to contain an antibiotic than those from other healthcare institutions (71% vs. 44% [township] vs. 47% [county], p < 0.001). Most doctors have recently attended training on antibiotic use and report they would not prescribe antibiotics for patients with a common cold, even when placed under pressure by patients. However, more than half of the prescriptions from these healthcare institutions for patients with the common cold included an antibiotic. Exploring and addressing gaps between knowledge and practice is critical to improving antibiotic use in rural China.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 4 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 106 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Unknown 105 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 21 20%
Student > Bachelor 15 14%
Researcher 12 11%
Student > Ph. D. Student 11 10%
Student > Postgraduate 5 5%
Other 15 14%
Unknown 27 25%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 31 29%
Social Sciences 10 9%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 6 6%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 5 5%
Nursing and Health Professions 4 4%
Other 16 15%
Unknown 34 32%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 7. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 January 2023.
All research outputs
#4,942,730
of 23,842,189 outputs
Outputs from BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology
#88
of 448 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#60,698
of 266,621 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology
#5
of 9 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,842,189 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 79th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 448 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.3. This one has done well, scoring higher than 80% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 266,621 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 77% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 9 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 4 of them.