The Potential Patterns of Symptoms of Upper Respiratory Tract Infections in the Public and Their Effects on Antibiotic Use Behavior

Background Antibiotic resistance caused by antibiotic abuse has become a public health issue worldwide. Reducing the irrational use of antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) among the public is an important strategy to address the antibiotics abuse in China. Therefore, identifying the characteristics of URTIs in the population and their influence on the irrational use of antibiotics can help to design more targeted policies and interventions. Objective To quantify the potential patterns of symptoms of URTIs in the pulic, and explore their effect on antibiotic use behavior. Methods The public in three counties (districts) of Chongqing Municipality from July 20 to August 2, 2022 were selected as the survey respondents by using the cluster random sample method. The symptoms of URTIs, antibiotic use behavior, antibiotic use knowledge and demographics of the public were collected. Latent class analysis was used to identify the potential patterns of the public URTIs symptoms. Multivariate Logist