Table 2. Multivariable analysis of determinants of antibiotic prescribing, taking into account a GP’s perception of a patient request for antibiotics (overall), and clinical examination findings for the subgroups diagnosed with a lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI), throat infection, and influenza-like-illness (ILI)

	All (n = 4746)		LRTI (n = 1519)		Throat infection (n = 1632)		ILI (n = 1046)
	Adj OR^a	95% CI	Adj OR^a	95% CI	Adj OR^a	95% CI	Adj OR^a	95% CI
Use of POC test(s)	1.34	0.97 to 1.86	0.66	0.38 to 1.15	0.92	0.46 to 1.87	1.61	0.50 to 5.21
Illness severity: moderate	7.47*	6.22 to 8.96	5.38*	3.84 to 7.52	6.39*	4.35 to 9.31	4.65*	2.17 to 9.95
Illness severity: severe	9.94*	6.60 to 4.97	3.61*	1.99 to 6.53	1.46	0.39 to 5.45	3.27	0.46 to 23.28
Age (year)	1.01*	1.01 to 1.02	1.02*	1.01 to 1.03	1.01	1.00 to 1.02	0.99	0.97 to 1.01
Comorbidity	1.27*	1.04 to 1.55	1.05	0.75 to 1.48	1.08	0.67 to 1.72	1.37	0.60 to 3.13
Fever	1.50*	1.25 to 1.80	2.46*	1.77 to 3.42	1.18	0.67 to 1.73	1.59	0.69 to 3.66
Duration (day)	1.03*	1.01 to 1.04	1.02	1.00 to 1.05	1.06*	1.01 to 1.12	1.04	0.98 to 1.10
Request for antibiotics	4.35*	3.41 to 5.54	2.87*	1.92 to 4.31	5.05*	3.05 to 8.36	13.86*	5.47 to 35.11
Dyspnoea			1.35	0.96 to 1.90
Chest pain			1.11	0.66 to 1.89
Abnormal lung auscultation			3.09*	2.27 to 4.21			3.76*	1.51 to 9.37
Sputum			2.34*	1.73 to 3.16			2.65*	1.19 to 5.93
Wheeze			0.58*	0.41 to 0.82
Tachypnoea			0.99	0.59 to 1.67
Tonsillar exudate					16.43*	10.65 to 25.33
Swollen tonsils					2.64*	1.84 to 3.80
Tender cervical nodes					1.46	0.99 to 2.17
Peritonsillar abscess					4.35	0.41 to 46.19
Country	Appendix, Supplementary Table S2

Multivariable mixed effects logistic regression for the dependent variable antibiotic prescribing controlling for age, comorbidity, fever, perceived illness severity, illness duration, perceived request for antibiotics, country and strep A and/or C-reactive protein (CRP) point-of-care (POC) testing for all patients. Three important subgroups, patients diagnosed with a LRTI, throat infection, or ILI were further studied; relevant clinical examination findings, with a significant association in univariable analysis, were included. CRP testing was included for patients with a LRTI and strep A for patients with a throat infection. Practice was included as random effect. No interaction terms were added to the models. Reference categories were ‘no’ for POC testing, comorbidity, fever,, and perceived request, ‘mild’ for illness severity, and Belgium (lowest antibiotic prescribing proportion) for country. For age and duration of symptoms an increase of one unit was considered. ^aAdjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI); values significant at the 5% significance level in bold.