Table 1

Objective, study design, data collection and analysis methods for each phase of the project

Phase	Substudy	Main objective/s	Study design	Data collection and analysis methods
Preintervention	I	(1) To explore GPs’ views and understanding of prudent antibiotic prescribing as well as factors which influence their antibiotic prescribing practices. (2) To understand the variation in GPs’ perceptions on delayed antibiotic prescribing	Qualitative exploratory	Quota sample of active registered GPs Individual semistructured interviews Content analysis and phenomenography
	II	To gain a better understanding of the antibiotic prescription–use–dispensation dynamic in Malta through three different stakeholders	Qualitative exploratory	Quota sample of active registered GPs Snowball sample of parents and community pharmacists Focus group discussions Content analysis
	III	To present the baseline 1 year diagnosis-specific antibiotic prescribing patterns for respiratory tract complaints in Malta	Repeated cross-sectional surveillance	Total population sampling One-year prospective surveillance Descriptive statistics and mixed effects logistic regression models
Intervention	IV	To determine GPs’ behavioural intention (attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control) to prescribe antibiotics and their readiness for behaviour change	Cross-sectional	Purposive sampling Self-administered questionnaire Data will be analysed using appropriate statistical methods
Intervention	V	To design, develop and implement a tailored, multifaceted SM intervention to improve antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory tract infections among GPs	Intervention implementation	Verbal feedback and feedback questionnaires Collection of delayed antibiotic prescriptions Ongoing surveillance/monitoring Logs Descriptive analysis of process indicator data
Postintervention	VI	To measure the change in GPs’ intention to prescribe antibiotics and their readiness for behaviour change	Repeated cross-sectional	Self-administered questionnaire Descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon signed-rank test
Postintervention	VII	To evaluate the impact of an SM intervention on GPs’ antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory tract complaints in Malta	Repeated cross-sectional surveillance	One-year prospective surveillance Paired, before-and-after evaluation of antibiotic prescribing Interrupted time series analysis with segmented regression

GP, general practitioner; SM, social marketing.