Factors of prescribing phage therapy among UK healthcare professionals: Evidence from conjoint experiment and interviews

Abstract

With the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), interest in the development of antibiotic alternatives has surged worldwide. While phage therapy is not a new phenomenon, technological and socio-economic factors have limited its implementation in the Western world. There is now a resurged effort, especially in the UK, to address these challenges. In this study, we collect survey data on UK general practitioners (n = 131) and other healthcare professionals (n = 103), as well as interviews with medical professionals (n = 4) and a focus group with medical students (n = 6) to explore factors associated with their willingness to prescribe phage therapy to patients. The interviews with medical professionals show support for the expansion of bacteriophage clinical trials and highlight their role as a viable alternative to antibiotics. A conjoint experiment reveals that success rate, side effect rate, and patient attitude to treatment are the decisive factors when it comes to phage therapy prescription; in contrast, the effects of administration route, type of treatment, and severity of infection were not statistically significant. Moreover, we show that general practitioners overall are more likely to recommend phage treatment to patients, compared to other healthcare professionals. The results of the study suggest that phage therapy has a potential to be widely accepted and used by healthcare workers in the UK.