Table 1.

Characteristics of the Study Population(n = 386 adults)

Characteristic	n(%)
Sociodemographic factors
Age, years (median, 45; range, 18–96)
18–44	185 (48)
45–64	129 (33)
65+	69 (18)
Female gender	250 (65)
Race/ethnicity
White	314 (81)
Hispanic	58 (15)
Other	9 (2)
Marital status
Married	249 (64)
Widowed, divorced, or separated	84 (22)
Single	51 (13)
Education, highest level completed
Less than high school	24 (6)
High school	142 (37)
Any college	179 (46)
Any graduate school	40 (10)
Parent of young children (≤5 years old)	66 (17)
Experiential and other factors
Consults with an advice nurse for respiratoryillnesses at least some of the time	184 (48)
Consults with a self-care manual for respiratory illnesses at least some of the time	135 (35)
Ever prescribed an antibiotic (for a respiratory illness) thought to be unnecessary	25 (6)
Ever told by a provider that antibiotics were not needed for a respiratory illness episode	107 (28)
Has a chronic medical condition	72 (19)
Ever used a leftover antibiotic for arespiratory illness	89 (23)
Antibiotic effectiveness beliefs
Believes antibiotics are helpful for viral respiratory illnesses at least some of the time *	211 (55)
Believes antibiotics are helpful for bacterial respiratory illnesses at least some of the time †	272 (70)
Believes antibiotics are helpful for bacterial but not viral respiratory illnesses *,†	82 (21)

^*Viral illness description included the examples “common cold” and “the flu.”

^†Bacterial illness description included the examples “pneumonia” and “strep throat.”