Imperial College London
Alternate

Hilary Watt CStat FHEA MSc MA(Oxon) BA

Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health

Senior Teaching Fellow in Statistics
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 7451h.watt Website

 
 
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Location

 

322Reynolds BuildingCharing Cross Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Smith:2016:10.1370/afm.1970,
author = {Smith, TDH and Watt, H and Gunn, L and Car, J and Boyle, RJ},
doi = {10.1370/afm.1970},
journal = {Annals of Family Medicine},
pages = {422--430},
title = {Recommending oral probiotics to reduce winter antibiotic prescriptions in people with asthma: a pragmatic randomized controlled trial},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1370/afm.1970},
volume = {14},
year = {2016}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - PURPOSE Evidence from studies mainly in children has shown that orally administered probiotics may prevent respiratory tract infections and associated antibiotic use. We evaluated whether advice to take daily probiotics can reduce antibiotic prescribing for winter respiratory tract infections in people with asthma.METHODS We conducted a randomized controlled, parallel-group pragmatic study for participants aged 5 years and older with asthma in a UK primary care setting. The intervention was a postal leaflet with advice to take daily probiotics from October 2013 to March 2014, compared with a standard winter advice leaflet. Primary outcome was the proportion of participants prescribed antibiotics for respiratory tract infections.RESULTS There were 1,302 participants randomly assigned to a control group (n = 650) or intervention group (n = 652). There was no significant difference in the primary outcome measure, with 27.7% receiving antibiotics in the intervention group and 26.9% receiving antibiotics in the control group (odds ratio = 1.04; 95% CI, 0.82–1.34). Uptake of probiotics was low, but outcomes were similar in those who accessed probiotics (adjusted odds ratio = 1.08; 95% CI, 0.69–1.69, compared with controls). We also found no evidence of an effect on respiratory tract infections or asthma exacerbations.CONCLUSIONS In this pragmatic community-based trial in people with asthma, we found no evidence that advising use of winter probiotics reduces antibiotic prescribing.
AU  - Smith,TDH
AU  - Watt,H
AU  - Gunn,L
AU  - Car,J
AU  - Boyle,RJ
DO  - 10.1370/afm.1970
EP  - 430
PY  - 2016///
SN  - 1544-1717
SP  - 422
TI  - Recommending oral probiotics to reduce winter antibiotic prescriptions in people with asthma: a pragmatic randomized controlled trial
T2  - Annals of Family Medicine
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1370/afm.1970
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/32409
VL  - 14
ER  -
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