The Programme started in 2010 and will complete in March 2016. 

The team is hosting a one-day free implementation event to showcase this exciting research in central London, 26 Feb. Click on the left-hand menu for further details. 

Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in children present a major problem to health care services internationally for three reasons:

• They are extremely common and costly to service providers, families, schools and parents’ employers.
• Clinicians remain uncertain about how to diagnosis and best manage RTIs in children.
• Overusing antibiotics can lead to antimicrobial resistance and re-enforces the belief that parents should consult for similar symptoms in the future.

The overall aim of the Programme is to improve the quality of care given to children presenting to primary care with RTIs. The Programme consists of five Workstreams (WS) using mixed methods to: review existing data in WS1; explore the experiences of parents and clinicians in WS2; develop a clinical prediction rule to predict future hospitalisation for RTI in WS3; integrate the evidence found in WS1-3 in WS(t), which led to developing an intervention to improve the targeting of antibiotics and parental health seeking behaviour for children with RTIs; evaluate in WS4.

The team is currently writing up the results for publication, both within workstreams and across them, generating further research ideas and disseminating the work for public, clinical and NHS attention.

More information about infection research at the Centre for Academic Primary Care

Publications 

Turnbull S, Redmond NM, Lucas, PJ, Cabral C, Ingram J, et al. The CHICO (Children’s Cough) Trial protocol: a feasibility randomised controlled trial investigating the clinical and cost effectiveness of a complex intervention to improve the management of children presenting to primary care with acute respiratory tract infection. BMJ Open 2015;5: e008615. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008615

Cabral C, Lucas PJ, Ingram J, et al. "It's safer to ..." parent consulting and clinician antibiotic prescribing decisions for children with respiratory tract infections: An analysis across four qualitative studies. Social science & medicine 2015;136-137C:156-64.

Lucas PJ, Cabral C, Hay AD, et al. A systematic review of parent and clinician views and perceptions that influence prescribing decisions in relation to acute childhood infections in primary care. Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care 2015;33(1):11-20.

Cabral C, Horwood J, Hay AD, et al. How communication affects prescription decisions in consultations for acute illness in children: a systematic review and meta-ethnography. BMC Fam Pract 2014;15:63.

Cabral C, Ingram J, Hay AD, et al. “They just say everything's a virus” - parent's judgment of the credibility of clinician communication in primary care consultations for respiratory tract infections in children: A qualitative study. Patient Education and Counseling 2014;95(2):248–53.

Thompson M, Vodicka TA, Blair PS, et al. Duration of symptoms of respiratory tract infections in children: systematic review. Bmj 2013;347:f7027.

Redmond NM, Davies R, Christensen H, et al. The TARGET cohort study protocol: a prospective primary care cohort study to derive and validate a clinical prediction rule to improve the targeting of antibiotics in children with respiratory tract illnesses. BMC health services research 2013;13:322.

Ingram J, Cabral C, Hay AD, et al. Parents' information needs, self-efficacy and influences on consulting for childhood respiratory tract infections: a qualitative study. BMC Family Practice 2013;14:106.

Vodicka TA, Thompson M, Lucas P, et al. Reducing antibiotic prescribing for children with respiratory tract infections in primary care: a systematic review, 2013.

Andrews T, Thompson M, Buckley DI, et al. Interventions to influence consulting and antibiotic use for acute respiratory tract infections in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS ONE 2012;7(1):e30334.