Incidence of remote consultation on general practitioners' antibiotic prescriptions in 2021: a French observational study.

Background: In patients with infectious diseases, remote consultation (RC) may be questionable compared with face-to-face office consultation (OC), not only because of the lack of physical examination but also because of the risk of overprescribing antibiotics (ATBs).

Aim: To analyse ATB prescription in OC versus RC in a sample of French GPs.

Design & setting: This is a retrospective observational cohort study in general practice in 2021. Anonymised data were collected from voluntary GPs.

Method: The influence of the mode of consultation on ATB prescription was analysed using a χ² test. A secondary multivariate analysis investigated the factors influencing the use of OC or RC in patients who received at least one ATB.

Results: In total, 35 503 consultations with an identifiable rating were included, corresponding to seven doctors' activities, practising with five locums and three residents. ATBs were prescribed in 10.41% of RCs and 6.77% of OCs (P<0.01). RC was associated with more frequent prescription of ATBs for respiratory and ear, nose, and throat (ENT) viral infections and urinary tract infections. For patients aged 20-40 years, ATB prescription was more associated with RC.

Conclusion: RC is associated with a more frequent ATB prescription than OC, mostly for patients aged 20-40 years, who are most likely to use new technologies; and for urinary tract infections or respiratory and ENT viral infections. Further studies on RC outcomes should be conducted to better analyse the impact of RC on the prescribing of ATBs.