Impact of a multifaceted intervention programme on antibiotic prescribing and dispensing in four patient-centred settings in five European countries. The HAPPY PATIENT project.

Background: The primary cause of antimicrobial resistance is excessive and non-indicated antibiotic use.

Aim: To evaluate the impact of a multifaceted intervention aimed at various healthcare professionals (HCPs) on antibiotic prescribing and dispensing for common infections.

Design And Setting: Before-and-after study set in general practice, out-of-hours services, nursing homes, and community pharmacies in France, Greece, Lithuania, Poland, and Spain.

The durability of previous examinations for cancer: Danish nationwide cohort study.

Objective: Patients previously examined for cancer with a negative result may present in general practice with ongoing or new symptoms or signs suggestive of cancer. This paper explores the potential existence of a relatively safe period for cancer occurrence after receiving negative examination results for specific types of cancer, including lung (CT thorax), upper gastrointestinal (gastroscopy), colorectal (colonoscopy), bladder (cystoscopy), and breast (clinical mammography).

Design: Register-based time-to-event analyses.

Variation in daytime general practice services and association with out-of-hours use for older patients: protocol for a Danish cohort study.

Introduction: Out-of-hours primary care services cannot provide the same continuity and coordination of care as general practice. Thus, patients with high risk of complex care trajectories should, when possible, be treated by the general practitioner during daytime opening hours. This study aims to analyse the variation among general practices in the frequencies of daytime services for persons aged ≥75 years and how it relates to the patients' use of out-of-hours services.

Continuity and discontinuity of care among older patients in Danish general practice: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Continuity of care (COC) for older adults has been associated with lower use of healthcare services, decreased risk of hospitalisation, and lower mortality. However, research on COC in older adults is limited by short time periods and small sample sizes. Long-term COC can only develop if the patient stays with the general practice for ≥10 years.

C-reactive protein cut-offs used for acute respiratory infections in Danish general practice.

Background: GPs can use the C-reactive protein (CRP) point-of-care test (POCT) to assist when deciding whether to prescribe antibiotics for patients with acute respiratory tract infections (RTIs).

Aim: To estimate the CRP cut-off levels that Danish GPs use to guide antibiotic prescribing for patients presenting with different signs and symptoms of RTIs.

Design & Setting: A cross-sectional study conducted in general practice in Denmark.

Prescription of antibiotics to children with acute otitis media in Danish general practice.

Background: Acute otitis media (AOM) is a common and most often self-limiting infection in childhood, usually managed in general practice. Even though antibiotics are only recommended when certain diagnostic and clinical criteria are met a high antibiotic prescription rate is observed. The study's objective was to analyse associations between patient- and general practitioner (GP) characteristics and antibiotic prescribing for children with AOM in an effort to explain the high antibiotic prescribing rates.