ARTICLE Ruling Out the Need for Antibiotics Are We Sending the Right Message?

Objectives: To examine the relationships among phy-sician-parent communication practices, physicians ’ per-ceptions of parental expectations for antibiotic treat-ment, and inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for viral upper respiratory tract infections. Design: Cross-sectional study of pediatric encounters motivated by cold symptoms between October 1, 2000, and June 30, 2001. Each encounter was videotaped. Phy-sicians completed a postvisit survey that measured whether they perceived the parent as expecting antibi-otics. Coded communication variables were merged with survey variables. Multivariate analyses identified key pre-dictors of parent-physician communication practices, phy-sician perceptions of parents ’ expectations for antibiot-ics, and inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for viral conditions. Setting: Twenty-seven pediatric practices in Los Ange-les, Calif