The Influence of Rapid Influenza Diagnostic Testing on Clinician Decision-Making for Patients With Acute Respiratory Infection in Urgent Care

BACKGROUND: The potential benefits of using rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs) in urgent care facilities for clinical care and prescribing practices are understudied.

We compared antiviral and antibiotic prescribing, imaging, and laboratory ordering in clinical encounters with and without RIDT results.

METHODS: We compared patients with acute respiratory infection (ARI) symptoms who received an RIDT and patients who did not at 2 urgent care facilities.

Primary analysis using 1-to-1 exact matching resulted in 1145 matched pairs to which McNemar 2 × 2 tests were used to assess the association between the likelihood of prescribing, imaging/laboratory ordering, and RIDT use.

Secondary analysis compared the same outcomes using logistic regression among the RIDT-tested population between participants who tested negative (RIDT(−)) and positive (RIDT(+)).

RESULTS: Primary analysis revealed that compared to the non-RIDT-tested population, RIDT(+) patients were more likely to be prescribed antivirals (OR, 10.23; 95% CI, 5.78–19.72) and less likely to be prescribed antibiotics (OR, 0.15; 95% CI, .08–.27).

Comparing RIDT-tested to non-RIDT-tested participants, RIDT use increased antiviral prescribing odds (OR, 3.07; 95% CI, 2.25–4.26) and reduced antibiotic prescribing odds (OR, 0.52; 95% CI, .43–.63).

Secondary analysis identified increased odds of prescribing antivirals (OR, 28.21; 95% CI, 18.15–43.86) and decreased odds of prescribing antibiotics (OR, 0.20; 95% CI, .13–.30) for RIDT(+) participants compared with RIDT(−).

CONCLUSIONS: Use of RIDTs in patients presenting with ARI symptoms influences clinician diagnostic and treatment decision-making, which could lead to improved patient outcomes, population-level reductions in influenza burden, and a decreased threat of antibiotic resistance.