Calling acute bronchitis a chest cold may improve patient satisfaction with appropriate antibiotic use

Overuse of antibiotics for acute respiratory infections is an important public health problem and occurs in part because of pressure on physicians by patients to prescribe them. We hypothesized that if acute respiratory infections are called "chest colds" or "viral infections" rather than "bronchitis," patients will be satisfied with the diagnosis and more satisfied with not receiving antibiotics.

Family medicine patients were presented with a written scenario describing a typical acute respiratory infection where they were given one of 3 different diagnostic labels: chest cold, viral upper respiratory infection, and bronchitis, followed by a treatment plan that excluded antibiotic treatment. Data was analyzed for satisfaction with the diagnosis and treatment plan based on the diagnostic label. A total of 459 questionnaires were collected.

Satisfaction (70%, 63%, and 68%) and dissatisfaction (11% 13%, and 13%) with the diagnostic labels of cold, viral upper respiratory infection, and bronchitis, respectively, showed no difference (chi(2) = 0.368, P = .832). However, more patients were dissatisfied with not receiving an antibiotic when the diagnosis label was bronchitis. A total of 26% of those that were told they had bronchitis were dissatisfied with their treatment, compared with 13% and 17% for colds and viral illness, respectively, (chi(2) = 9.380, P = .009). Binary logistic regression showed no difference in satisfaction with diagnosis for educational attainment, age, and sex (odds ratio (OR) = 1.09, 1.00, 0.98, respectively), or for satisfaction with treatment (OR = 1.1, 1.02, 1.00, respectively).

Provider use of benign-sounding labels such as chest cold when a patient presents for care for an acute respiratory infection may not affect patient satisfaction but may improve satisfaction with not being prescribed an antibiotic.