Attitudes towards antibiotic use in end-of-life care: a nationwide Italian physician survey.

BACKGROUND

Many patients receive antibiotics at the end of their lives: prudent use in this setting is essential to limit side effects and selective pressure. Evaluating benefits and harms of antibiotics in this context is complex, with many factors influencing final decisions, including transition to end-of-life care and diagnosis of impending death. We aimed to investigate attitudes towards antibiotic prescription among key specialists involved in end-of-life care, also as part of a consensus on antibiotic prescription at the end of life.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

An anonymous ten-question survey was conducted in January 2025, over a one-month period, on the websites of the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases (SIMIT), the Italian Society of Palliative Care (SICP), the Italian Society of General Practitioners (SIMG), and the Italian Federation of Associations of Internal Medicine Physicians (FADOI), with a denominator of 9224 potential respondents. Specialists were invited to respond questions about usual practice with both end-stage oncological and non-oncological patients. A descriptive analysis of the aggregated data was performed.

RESULTS

880 physicians (9.5% of the denominator) participated (59.2% female), most working in hospitals (56.7%) and internal medicine departments (39.9%). A plurality (40.8%) had less than 10 years of work experience. Attitudes towards infection management and antibiotic prescription varied widely. More than half of the respondents reported treating infections differently in oncological versus non-oncological patients. Only a minority used antibiotics to treat respiratory secretions. Most could not rely on institutional guidelines for antibiotic prescription in terminally ill patients.

CONCLUSION

The attitude towards antibiotic prescription at the end of life is influenced by many factors, including the physician's background and setting. Case-by-case decision-making and advanced care planning could be significantly supported by guidelines based on studies that provide real-life data and effectively stratify patients and scenarios.