Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Süleyman Demirel University, Isparta - Turkey

As the common use of antibiotics is a very important factor in antibiotic resistance, their rational use has to be promoted world. We planned this study in order to define the habits and approach of Turkish residents when prescribing antibiotics, including their selection criteria, and to discover if the availability of laboratory tests affected their approach. In this descriptive study, the residents in the authors' hospitals were visited once during October and November 2001. Anonymous, volunteer-based questionnaires were used, which required the following information: demographic features of resident, the most common types of infections and groups of antibiotics prescribed, any laboratory tests performed, and the antibiotic selection criteria. Chi-square test was used for the statistical analysis. Among 306 residents, 229 (74.8%) participated in the study. We found that upper respiratory tract infection was the most common type of infection, and amoxicillin-clavulonate and ampicillin-sulbactam were the most commonly prescribed antibiotics. Initial selection criteria for antibiotic prescription by our residents were patients' expectations and cost of the therapy. Laboratory did not affect our residents' antibiotic prescription habits. We concluded that the availability of laboratory testing did not affect the residents' decision to prescribe antibiotics. Residents and the community should be educated on rational drug use and prescription.