Characteristics of patients in the family practice teaching units before and after the intervention*
| Characteristic§ | % (n/N) of patients† | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before intervention | After intervention | |||
| Intervention units n = 5 | Control units n = 4 | Intervention units n = 5 | Control units n = 4 | |
| Female | 65.6 (118/180) | 59.8 (101/169) | 64.6 (117/181) | 68.0 (121/178) |
| Adults‡ | 64.3 (117/182) | 77.8 (133/171) | 60.9 (109/179) | 83.6 (148/177) |
| Children | 36.1 (65/180) | 22.2 (38/171) | 39.1 (70/179) | 16.4 (29/177) |
| Age, yr, mean ± SD | ||||
| Adults | 39.3 ± 12.4 | 43.3 ± 16.2 | 40.8 ± 15.1 | 43.3 ± 14.8 |
| Children | 4.6 ± 3.8 | 5.0 ± 3.9 | 4.9 ± 3.7 | 4.9 ± 4.1 |
| Household size, mean ± SD | 3.5 ± 1.1 | 3.3 ± 1.3 | 3.4 ± 1.1 | 3.2 ± 1.1 |
| ≥ 1 chronic disease | 14.8 (27/182) | 17.5 (30/171) | 8.8 (16/181) | 15.7 (28/178) |
| College or university degree | 59.0 (69/117) | 60.2 (80/133) | 58.0 (65/112) | 63.1 (94/149) |
| Private drug insurance | 68.1 (79/116) | 71.8 (94/131) | 75.9 (85/112) | 67.8 (101/149) |
| Preferred role in decision-making | ||||
| Patient decides | 1.2 (2/171) | 5.4 (9/166) | 3.7 (6/163) | 1.2 (2/165) |
| Patient decides after considering physician’s opinion | 29.8 (51/171) | 22.9 (38/166) | 28.2 (46/163) | 33.3 (55/165) |
| Parties decide together | 21.1 (36/171) | 29.5 (49/166) | 32.5 (53/163) | 26.1 (43/165) |
| Physician decides after considering patient’s opinion | 38.0 (65/171) | 36.1 (60/166) | 30.1 (49/163) | 32.1 (53/165) |
| Physician decides | 9.9 (17/171) | 6.0 (10/166) | 5.5 (9/163) | 7.3 (12/165) |
Note: SD = standard deviation.
↵* The intervention was DECISION+2, a training program in shared decision-making designed to reduce the proportion of patients deciding to use antibiotics immediately after consulting their physician because of an acute respiratory infection.
↵† Unless stated otherwise.
↵‡ Age ≥ 18 years.
↵§ Because of missing values, the denominator for some characteristics may have differed from the sample size.