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. 2022 Mar 2;9(5):ofac111.
doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofac111. eCollection 2022 May.

Behavioral Nudges to Improve Audit and Feedback Report Opening Among Antibiotic Prescribers: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Nick Daneman  1   2   3   4   5   6 , Samantha Lee  3 , Heming Bai  7 , Chaim M Bell  3   4   5   8 , Susan E Bronskill  3   4   5   9 , Michael A Campitelli  3 , Gail Dobell  7 , Longdi Fu  3 , Gary Garber  10 , Noah Ivers  3   4   5   9   11 , Matthew Kumar  3 , Jonathan M C Lam  7 , Bradley Langford  2 , Celia Laur  9 , Andrew M Morris  8   12 , Cara L Mulhall  7 , Ruxandra Pinto  6 , Farah E Saxena  3 , Kevin L Schwartz  2   3   5 , Kevin A Brown  2   3
Affiliations

Behavioral Nudges to Improve Audit and Feedback Report Opening Among Antibiotic Prescribers: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Nick Daneman et al. Open Forum Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: Peer comparison audit and feedback has demonstrated effectiveness in improving antibiotic prescribing practices, but only a minority of prescribers view their reports. We rigorously tested 3 behavioral nudging techniques delivered by email to improve report opening.

Methods: We conducted a pragmatic randomized controlled trial among Ontario long-term care prescribers enrolled in an ongoing peer comparison audit and feedback program which includes data on their antibiotic prescribing patterns. Physicians were randomized to 1 of 8 possible sequences of intervention/control allocation to 3 different behavioral email nudges: a social peer comparison nudge (January 2020), a maintenance of professional certification incentive nudge (October 2020), and a prior participation nudge (January 2021). The primary outcome was feedback report opening; the primary analysis pooled the effects of all 3 nudging interventions.

Results: The trial included 421 physicians caring for >28 000 residents at 450 facilities. In the pooled analysis, physicians opened only 29.6% of intervention and 23.9% of control reports (odds ratio [OR], 1.51 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 1.10-2.07], P = .011); this difference remained significant after accounting for physician characteristics and clustering (adjusted OR [aOR], 1.74 [95% CI, 1.24-2.45], P = .0014). Of individual nudging techniques, the prior participation nudge was associated with a significant increase in report opening (OR, 1.62 [95% CI, 1.06-2.47], P = .026; aOR, 2.16 [95% CI, 1.33-3.50], P = .0018). In the pooled analysis, nudges were also associated with accessing more report pages (aOR, 1.28 [95% CI, 1.14-1.43], P < .001).

Conclusions: Enhanced nudging strategies modestly improved report opening, but more work is needed to optimize physician engagement with audit and feedback.

Clinical trials registration: NCT04187742.

Keywords: antibiotic treatment; drug prescribing; long-term care; nudging; peer comparison audit and feedback.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Report-opening rates among physicians in each of the 3 interventions (social peer comparison, maintenance of certification, and prior report-opening nudges) and respective control (standard email) groups, individually and pooled.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Associated data