Homeopathic and conventional treatments for acute upper respiratory tract infections (aURTI): Real-World cohort study on recurrence and antibiotic prescriptions.

Introduction: The study evaluated the recurrence of acute upper respiratory tract infections (aURTI) and the number of antibiotic prescriptions within 12-month follow-up in patients prescribed with either homeopathic medicines or medicines from one of four conventional medication classes for aURTI therapy.

Methods: This explorative cohort study used real-world electronic healthcare data from the Disease Analyzer database (IQVIA). Included were patients of all ages from Germany with an index diagnosis of aURTI between 2010 and 2018, who had prescriptions for either homeopathic, conventional cough & cold, nasal, or throat medicines, or nonopioid analgesics on the day of diagnosis or within six days afterwards.