Original articlesAntibiotics and Return Visits for Respiratory Illness: A Comparison of Pooled versus Hierarchical Statistical Methods

Background: Antibiotic prescribing for respiratory illness has been associated with small reductions in return visits in an analysis of a large practicebased network. In this study, we apply hierarchical analytical methods that account for the clustering of patients by practices to identify whether antibiotic prescribing by primary care physicians reduces subsequent visits for 6 acute respiratory illnesses-upper respiratory infection, pharyngitis, bronchitis, otitis media, sinusitis, and cough.