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BackgroundThe benefits and risks of antibiotics for acute bronchitis remain unclear despite it being one of the most common illnesses seen in primary care. ObjectivesTo assess the effects of antibiotics in improving outcomes and assess adverse effects of antibiotic therapy for patients with a clinical diagnosis of acute bronchitis.

We found limited evidence of clinical benefit to support the use of antibiotics for acute bronchitis. Some people treated with antibiotics recovered a bit more quickly with reduced cough-related outcomes. However, this di erence may not be of practical importance as it amounted to a di erence of half a day over an 8-to 10-day period. There was a small but significant increase in adverse side e ects in people treated with antibiotics. The most commonly reported side e ects included nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, headache, and rash. This review suggests that there is limited benefit to the patient in using antibiotics for acute bronchitis in otherwise healthy individuals. More research is needed on the e ects of using antibiotics for acute bronchitis in frail, elderly people with multiple chronic conditions who may not have been included in the existing trials. Antibiotic use needs to be considered in the context of the potential side e ects, medicalisation for a self limiting condition, cost of antibiotic treatment, and in particular associated population-level harms due to increasing antibiotic resistance. Quality of the evidence The quality of these trials was generally good, particularly for more recent studies.

The RMED program has successfully met its goals of providing a valuable educational experience for medical students and assisting rural communities recruit physicians.

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These data suggest that the NHSC contributed positively to the non-NHSC primary care physician workforce in the rural underserved counties where its clinicians worked during the 1980s and 1990s.

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