Intervention usage
Across the 121 (84%) intervention practices that provided at least one month of intervention usage data, a total of 11 944 intervention uses were started and recorded (practice median 70 (interquartile range 9-142)). Twenty (17%) practices recorded zero usage over the 12 month period, of which 13 provided data wholly within the covid-19 pandemic period. The median number of clinical staff at intervention practices was 13, and the median number of intervention users per practice was 9 (3-16). Of staff whose job title was captured (n=1339), 74% (n=994) were general practitioners, 14% (187) were nurses, 6% (77) were office staff, 3% (40) were clinicians, 3% (34) were locum general practitioners, and 1% (7) were pharmacists. The baseline and follow-up data collection periods spanned October 2017 to September 2021 and thus included the covid-19 pandemic that began in the spring of 2020. Both use of the intervention and antibiotic dispensing data followed the expected seasonal winter peak until the pandemic, during which the intervention usage dramatically fell (Median number of times intervention was used, per month, over 12 months of follow-up