Promoting rational antibiotic therapy among high antibiotic prescribers in German primary care-study protocol of the ElektRA 4-arm cluster-randomized controlled trial.

Background: The rational use of antibiotics is of great importance in health care. In primary care, acute respiratory infections are the most common cause of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing. Since existing studies aiming to optimize antibiotic use are usually based on the voluntary participation of physicians, general practitioners (GPs) with inappropriate prescribing behavior are underrepresented.