Dentists’ Habits of Antibiotic Prescribing May be Influenced by Patient Requests for Prescriptions

Table 2

Unnecessary antibiotic prescribing by gender.

	Responses	Females (%)	Males (%)	value
How often do you prescribe antibiotics when you are sure they are not necessary?	More than once per week	14.1	18.6	0.601
	Never	31.7	31.4
	Once per month	15.0	11.0
	Rarely	39.2	39.0
How often do patients pressure you to prescribe antibiotics when you are sure they are not necessary for treatment or prophylactic purposes?	At least once per month	39.2	17.8	<0.001
	More than once per week	31.3	39.0
	Never	6.2	13.6
	Rarely	23.3	29.7
^∗How often do patients pressure you to prescribe antibiotics for their children when you are sure antibiotics are not necessary?	At least once per month	31.3	20.3	0.217
	More than once per week	21.6	22.9
	Never	11.5	16.1
	Rarely	25.6	27.1
Do you prescribe unnecessary antibiotics if requested by the patient?	Always	0.4	2.5	0.008
	Never	55.9	60.2
	Rarely	26.9	31.4
	Sometimes	16.7	5.9
Have you ever refused to prescribe antibiotics if the patient asked you to prescribe unnecessary antibiotics?	I always refuse	58.1	63.6	0.554
	Never been asked	5.3	5.9
	I sometimes refuse	36.6	30.5