Rapid influenza tests may reduce antibiotic prescriptions, improve patient outcomes
Written By : Dr. Shravani Dali
Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli
Published On 2023-02-16 14:30 GMT | Update On 2023-02-17 07:20 GMT
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Rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs) may reduce antibiotic prescriptions, improve patient outcomes suggests a new study published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases
The potential benefits of using rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs) in urgent care facilities for clinical care and prescribing practices are understudied. The researchers compared antiviral and antibiotic prescribing, imaging, and laboratory ordering in clinical encounters with and without rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs) results.
They compared patients with acute respiratory infection (ARI) symptoms who received an RIDT and patients who did not at 2 urgent care facilities. Primary analysis using 1-to-1 exact matching resulted in 1145 matched pairs to which McNemar 2 × 2 tests were used to assess the association between the likelihood of prescribing, imaging/laboratory ordering, and RIDT use. Secondary analysis compared the same outcomes using logistic regression among the RIDT-tested population between participants who tested negative (RIDT(−)) and positive (RIDT(+)).
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