• Anna Maria Bonet-Esteve, Laia Font-Ribera, Judit Dorca-Vila, Antonia Retamal-Cañiz, Pere Roura-Poch, and Josep Vidal-Alaball.
• Unitat de Farmàcia Atenció Primària. Gerència Territorial Catalunya Central. Institut Català de la Salut, Sant Fruitós de Bages, España; Grupo de Investigación PROSAARU (Promoción de la Salud en el Ámbito Rural), Gerència Territorial Catalunya Central. Institut Català de la Salut, Sant Fruitós de Bages, España.
• Aten Primaria. 2021 Dec 1; 53 (10): 102102102102.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the influence of the result of a rapid streptococcal antigen test in paediatric pharyngotonsillitis infections, in terms of improvement of antibiotic therapy adherence.DesignRandomized community clinical trial with two study groups.LocationPrimary Care Centers in Central Catalonia.ParticipantsPatients aged from 3 to 15 years, who were attended at paediatric consultations on suspicion of pharyngotonsillitis caused by an infection between November 2010 and February 2011 (both included), were included in the study on a consecutive basis. 557 patients met the inclusion criteria and 519 were evaluated.InterventionThe control group received the usual diagnostic-therapeutic algorithm. Rapid streptococcal antigen test was additionally performed to experimental group participants and it was indicated the more convenient treatment.Main MeasurementsAntibiotic adherence, non-adherence causes and socio-demographic risk factors were evaluated via telephone survey.ResultsAntibiotics were prescribed to 65.6% and paediatricians of the control group were more likely to prescribe antibiotic than the ones in the intervention group (88.5% vs 45.5%, p< 0.0001). 64.8% followed doctor's treatment orders, being failure following medication scheduling the main cause of non-adherence (25.6%). Medication adherence was higher in the experimental group (68%) than in the control group (62.9%) but no significant differences were found.ConclusionRapid strep test, complementing the use of Centor Criteria avoids unnecessary antibiotics prescriptions, but had not been proven to be effective in increasing medication adherence.Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

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