Recovery attributions and future expectations for antibiotics after precautionary prescribing.

ABSTRACT: Antibiotic overuse is a significant public health challenge, and antibiotics are often prescribed as a precaution. While precautionary prescribing often aims to meet perceived patient expectations, it can unintentionally reinforce the belief that antibiotics are necessary and effective. This study examines how the communication of precautionary antibiotic prescribing shapes patients' beliefs in what actually made them better and how these causal beliefs, in turn, affect their expectations for antibiotics in future illness situations. In the two preregistered online experiments with UK adults (N = 252 and N = 2448), participants imagined having an ear infection, receiving a precautionary prescription, taking antibiotics, and recovering shortly thereafter. We manipulated whether participants

SUBMITTER: Sievert EDC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12529262 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature