Research questions and hypotheses
fits, wheeze
SECONDARY
The present study investigated whether and, if so, how GPs’ risk assessments and prescribing decisions differ from those suggested by STARWAVe. As this was an extension and improvement of a previous studyvomiting and wheeze would both be associated with higher risk assessments and antibiotic prescribing odds;younger patient age would be associated with higher risk assessments but would not influence prescribing; andshorter duration would be associated with lower risk assessments and prescribing odds.How this fits inThe authors had no hypotheses concerning the remaining three STARWAVe factors, that were not investigated in the previous study.The current study also addressed three secondary research questions.
Which of two risk-elicitation methods will maximise alignment between GPs’ risk assessments and prescribing decisions? The authors had no hypotheses in this regard.Which of two risk-elicitation methods will maximise alignment between GPs and STARWAVe? The authors had no hypotheses in this regard.How might parental concern influence risk assessments and prescribing decisions? The authors expected prescribing to increase when parental concern was present (versus absent) from a clinical vignette.