A multifaceted approach to tailor antibiotic use in adults presenting to primary care with symptoms of acute rhinosinusitis and sore throat

This research project addresses three key objectives, to identify:

1) subgroups of adults presenting to primary care with symptoms of acute rhinosinusitis that are most likely to benefit from antibiotics, using novel individual participant data meta-analytic methods including multivariable, risk-based analysis (WP 1.1);

2) specific diagnostic criteria that predict antibiotic benefit in adults presenting to primary care with symptoms of acute rhinosinusitis, using diagnostic individual participant data meta-analysis to develop and validate a simple prediction model that will identify those patients likely to have a positive CT scan (WP 1.2);

3) subgroups of adults presenting to primary care with symptoms of sore throat that are most likely to benefit from antibiotics, using both conventional and novel IPD meta-analytic methods (WP 2).