Background: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Academy of Family Practice, and the American Academy of Pediatrics published guidelines for judicious antibiotic use: antibiotics are injudicious for the treatment of short-term purulent rhinorrhea, otitis media with effusion, and acute wheezy bronchitis.
Objective: To determine how academic, pediatric, and adult clinical allergists differed in use of antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections (URIs).
Methods: Surveys were sent to 424 allergists in private clinical practice and 156 allergists in academic settings. Three clinical pediatric vignettes were described. Questions about possible antibiotic use followed. Vignettes were as follows: simple URI in a toddler, the same child with short-duration green rhinorrhea, and the same child with otitis media with effusion.
Results: Of 580 mailed surveys, 358 were returned, for an overall response rate of 61.7%. Thirty-nine of these surveys did not meet inclusion criteria, reducing the response rate to 55.0%. Of these, 47.0% (n=150) were familiar with the guidelines: 85.3% answered that they usually adhered to them in practice. The academic allergist respondents demonstrated the best adherence to the guidelines for the 3 vignettes, followed closely by the clinical pediatric allergist respondents. For the population surveyed, adult clinical allergists were more likely than the other 2 groups to prescribe antibiotics for a simple URI (P < .001) and for a URI with short-duration green rhinorrhea (P = .004).
Conclusions: Academic allergists adhered to the CDC guidelines more closely than did adult allergists. Pediatric allergists in clinical practice were in agreement with the academic allergists. Despite self-reported knowledge of the CDC guidelines, many adult allergists in clinical practice did not adhere to them in their answers to the questions after several vignettes.