| Summary: | Part I. Aims: The aims of part I of this research programme were to: measure the prevalence of antibiotic prescription for U.R.T.I. in Primary Health Care Centres in the United Arab Emirates; understand the rational behind antibiotic prescription; Evaluate the effect of different patient characteristics such as self treatment, age, education, occupation and gender; evaluate the effect of physician characteristics such as gender, communication and practice location; and to evaluate the degree of patient compliance and satisfaction with treatment. Main Conclusions: U.R.T.I. is one of the main reasons for patient visits and antibiotic prescription; physicians’ advice to patients regarding dosage and duration of the prescribed medication was limited; a significant association existed between patients’ expectation from practitioners and practitioners’ perception of patients’ expectations; poor compliance is strongly correlated with poor patient-doctor interaction; diagnoses were typically based on clinical findings; patient satisfaction is strongly linked to the level of communication. Part II. Aims: To measure the influence of introducing guidelines to doctors and educational leaflets to patients on reducing the level of prescribed antibiotics; and to investigate the effect of factors such as socio-demographic characteristics, signs, symptoms and patient self management. Main Results: The total number of antibiotic prescriptions for patients suffering from U.R.T.I. including sore throat was significantly reduced in the intervention group. Conclusions: A multi-dimensional interventional approach for reducing antibiotic prescription in U.A.E. clinics resulted in a significant positive outcome; and the significant reduction in antibiotic prescriptions indicates the willingness of physicians to follow guidelines and the willingness of patients to respond to educational information. Main Recommendations: Clinical guidelines are most effective if implemented as part of a systemic strategy, involving dissemination of guidelines by departmental heads and utilisation of computer generated reminders; physicians should be involved as part of the working group to develop guidelines; ongoing educational programmes for physicians; and a public educational campaign on the problem of over use of antibiotics is essential.
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