Antibiotic Prescriptions
malaria, respiratory disease, nonrespiratory diseases
MALARIA, RESPIRATORY DISEASE
The relative risk (RR) of an antibiotic prescription in the intervention arm was 0.89 (95% CI, .79 to 1.01) compared with the control arm. The intervention was associated with a significant reduction in antibiotic prescriptions in children aged <5 years (RR, 0.86; 95% CI, .75 to .98), patients without malaria (RR, 0.85; 95% CI, .75 to .96), patients with WBC counts <11 000/mL (RR, 0.83; 95% CI, .70 to .98), and between July 2020 and September 2020 (RR, 0.80; 95% CI, .65 to .97). Of the 2 recruiting sites, Shai-Osudoku District Hospital had a significant overall relative reduction in antibiotics prescriptions (RR, 0.81; 95% CI, .71 to .93; Proportion of Antibiotics PrescriptionAbbreviations: CI, confidence interval; n.a., not applicable; RDT, rapid diagnostic test; RR, relative risk.There was a significant reduction in prescriptions of antibiotics for patients who had a confirmed (post-test) diagnosis categorized as a respiratory disease (RR, 0.84; 95% CI, .73 to .96). This was not the case for those diagnosed with nonrespiratory diseases, the majority of whom had a diagnosis other than malaria. However, even among these patients with a nonrespiratory diagnosis, the intervention arm had significantly reduced antibiotic prescriptions among those not tested for malaria (RR, 0.57; 95% CI, .42 to .79; 