%0 Journal Article %A Bashwar, Z. %A Malik, M. A. %A Fawaz, M. %A Said, H. %T Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Patients Attending West Bay Health Center Towards Upper Respiratory Tract Infections %D 2006 %J Qatar Medical Journal, %V 2006 %N 1 %@ 2227-0426 %C 14 %R https://doi.org/10.5339/qmj.2006.1.14 %K Knowledge %K antibiotics %K practices %K satisfaction %K attitudes %K upper respiratory tract infection %K education %I Hamad bin Khalifa University Press (HBKU Press), %X Upper respiratory tract infections (URI) are very com-mon in general practice. Although viruses cause the ma-jority of URI, many patients expect antibiotic treatment. At one Primary Health Care Center in Qatar; during October - November 2004, eleven hundred and eleven adult patients completed a short questionnaire on demographics, knowl-edge, attitudes, practices towards URI, and patient satis-faction. Four hundred and forty eight (40.3%) recognized viruses as the most common cause of URI; seven hundred and eighty-eight (70.9%) chose consulting a physician as the first line of action when contracting URI; 721 (64.9%) stated that management should be based on physician's diagnosis while 28% expected antibiotics. A majority of participants acknowledged the importance of counseling in their satisfaction but 49.6% reported dissatisfaction if antibiotics were not prescribed and 31.6% reported seek-ing antibiotics when not prescribed. Participants expect-ing antibiotics differed significantly regarding knowledge of causes of URI (p = 0.004). There was no significant dif-ference regarding factors affecting satisfaction based on antibiotic expectation. Results highlight the need for public education and counseling on etiology, course, and management of URI by physicians. %U https://www.qscience.com/content/journals/10.5339/qmj.2006.1.14