title: Behaviour change interventions to influence antimicrobial prescribing: a cross-sectional analysis of reports from UK state-of-the-art scientific conferences.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To improve the quality of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) interventions the application of behavioural sciences supported by multidisciplinary collaboration has been recommended. We analysed major UK scientific research conferences to investigate AMS behaviour change intervention reporting.
  
  
  METHODS
  Leading UK 2015 scientific conference abstracts for 30 clinical specialties were identified and interrogated. All AMS and/or antimicrobial resistance(AMR) abstracts were identified using validated search criteria. Abstracts were independently reviewed by four researchers with reported behavioural interventions classified using a behaviour change taxonomy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Conferences ran for 110 days with >57,000 delegates. 311/12,313(2.5%) AMS-AMR abstracts (oral and poster) were identified. 118/311(40%) were presented at the UK's infectious diseases/microbiology conference. 56/311(18%) AMS-AMR abstracts described behaviour change interventions. These were identified across 12/30(40%) conferences. The commonest abstract reporting behaviour change interventions were quality improvement projects [44/56 (79%)]. In total 71 unique behaviour change functions were identified. Policy categories; "guidelines" (16/71) and "service provision" (11/71) were the most frequently reported. Intervention functions; "education" (6/71), "persuasion" (7/71), and "enablement" (9/71) were also common. Only infection and primary care conferences reported studies that contained multiple behaviour change interventions. The remaining 10 specialties tended to report a narrow range of interventions focusing on "guidelines" and "enablement".
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite the benefits of behaviour change interventions on antimicrobial prescribing, very few AMS-AMR studies reported implementing them in 2015. AMS interventions must focus on promoting behaviour change towards antimicrobial prescribing. Greater focus must be placed on non-infection specialties to engage with the issue of behaviour change towards antimicrobial use.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Campus, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN UK.
authors.forename: T M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Rawson
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Campus, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN UK ; Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Hammersmith Hospital, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0HS UK.
authors.forename: L S P
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.affiliation: Imperial College School of Medicine, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ UK.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Tivey
authors.affiliation: Imperial College School of Medicine, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tsao
authors.affiliation: Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Hammersmith Hospital, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0HS UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gilchrist
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Campus, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN UK.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Charani
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Campus, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN UK ; Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Hammersmith Hospital, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0HS UK.
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Holmes
keywords: Antimicrobial Resistance; Cross-specialty; Infection; Quality improvement; Stewardship