Medicalising diagnoses and treatment preferences: a retrospective cohort study of throat-related consultations in electronic primary care records

Abstract

BackgroundRather than first diagnosing and then deciding on treatment, GPs may intuitively decide on treatment and justify this through choice of diagnosis.AimTo investigate the relationship between choice of a medicalising diagnosis and antibiotic treatment for throat-related consultations.Design & settingA retrospective cohort study in a large database of UK electronic primary care records between 1 January 2010 and 1 January 2020.MethodAll first throat-related consultations were included, categorised as either pharyngitis/tonsillitis or sore throat. The outcome was any antibiotic prescription on the consultation date. GP-level random effects on prescribing and on diagnosis were estimated in a series of mixed-effects regression models, including age, sex, weekday, month, and clinician characteristics as fixed effects. GPs were grouped into quintiles by antibiotic prescribing propensity, and described the proportion of patients they diagnosed with pharyngitis/tonsillitis or sore throat in each quintile.ResultsThe analysis dataset included 393 590 throat-related consultations with 6881 staff. Diagnosis of pharyngitis/tonsillitis was strongly associated with antibiotic prescribing (adjusted odds ratio = 13.41, 95% confidence interval = 12.8 to 14.04). GP random effect accounted for 18% of variation in prescribing and for 26% of variation in diagnosis. GPs in the lowest quintile of antibiotic prescribing propensity diagnosed pharyngitis/tonsillitis on 31% of occasions, compared with 55% in the highest quintile.ConclusionThere is substantial variation among GPs in diagnosis and treatment of throat-related problems. Preference for a medicalising diagnosis is associated with a preference for antibiotics, suggesting a common propensity to both diagnose and treat.