Knowledge of recommended antibiotic treatments for community-acquired infections in general medical practice: a cross-sectional study in Occitanie region, France

To assess and analyse the knowledge of recommended antibiotic treatments, focusing on the appropriate drugs and treatment durations for the most common community-acquired infections in general medical practice in Occitanie region, France. A web-based survey was conducted over a 3-month period, from October, 2018 to January, 2019. All participants answered directly through the online platform. For the analysis of overtreatment risk, a score based system was adopted and two scores were produced: the duration score and the treatment score. 413 general practitioners completed the survey. The overall rate of concordance with guidelines in terms of both drug choice and treatment length was 2974/4956 (60%) answers. Diseases with at least 70% good answers included cystitis, group A streptococcal pharyngitis, and bacterial superficial skin infections. Diseases with fewer than 50% good answers included pyelonephritis, dog bite wounds, and community-acquired pneumonia in patients aged ≥ 65 years. Factors associated with the risk of overtreatment were age > 40 years, country setting and hospital employment. Knowledge of treatment durations is satisfactory with 60% of recommendations being met. However, varying levels were observed according to different diseases. This study highlighted a very high rate of adherence when recommendations were clear. In contrast, low levels of adherence were observed when recommendations were ambiguous or when conflicting guidelines existed.