Prescription behaviours of office-based doctors to standardized common cold patients in Korea

To investigate real pictures of prescription behaviours of office-based doctors in Korea, especially focusing on the prescription of oral antibiotics and injections.

Prescription information was collected from 18 standardized patients (SPs) with the symptoms of the common cold who visited doctors' office.

For these patients antibiotics were prescribed by 96 doctors (64.7%) out of 148 and the rate of antibiotic prescription increased with age of doctors, increasing number of medicines, and cost of medicines. Analgesics were most frequently prescribed (91.8%), and gastrointestinal drugs (81.6%), antitussivies (61.2%), antithistamines (61.2%), decongestants (59.2%), mucolytics (51.0%) and proteolytic enzymes (32.7%) followed. More than half of the doctors intended to give injections to the patients, which was higher among internists and doctors prescribed more medicines.

Antibiotics and injections were frequently prescribed for mild common colds in Korea. Action to ensure judicious use of antibiotics and injection is urgent.