Patient Knowledge and Antibiotic Abuse: Evidence from an Audit Study in China

Janet Currie, Wanchuan Lin () and Wei Zhang

No 16602, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We ask how patient knowledge of appropriate antibiotic usage affects both physicians prescribing behavior and the physician-patient relationship. We conduct an audit study in which a pair of simulated patients with identical flu-like complaints visits the same physician. Simulated patient A is instructed to ask a question that showcases his/her knowledge of appropriate antibiotic use, whereas patient B is instructed to say nothing beyond describing his/her symptoms. We find that a patient's knowledge of appropriate antibiotics use reduces both antibiotic prescription rates and drug expenditures. Such knowledge also increases physicians' information provision about possible side effects, but has a negative impact on the quality of the physician-patient interactions.

JEL-codes: I11 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna and nep-hea
Note: EH PE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published as Currie, Janet & Lin, Wanchuan & Zhang, Wei, 2011. "Patient knowledge and antibiotic abuse: Evidence from an audit study in China," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 933-949.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w16602.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Patient knowledge and antibiotic abuse: Evidence from an audit study in China (2011)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16602

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w16602

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().