Background: Over-use of antibiotics for acute respiratory infections (ARIs) increases antimicrobial resistance, treatment costs and side effects.  Patient desire for antibiotics contributes to over-use.

Objective: To explore whether a point-of-care interactive computerised education module increases patient knowledge and decreases desire for antibiotics.

Methods: Bilingual (English/Spanish) interactive kiosks were available in 8 emergency departments as part of a multidimensional intervention to reduce antibiotic prescribing for ARIs.  The symptom-tailored module included assessment of symptoms, knowledge about ARIs (3 items) and desire for antibiotics on a 10-point visual analogue scale.  Multivariable analysis assessed predictors of change in desire for antibiotics.

Results: Of 686 adults with ARI symptoms, 63% initially thought antibiotics might help.  The proportion of patients with low (1 to 3 on the scale) desire for antibiotics increased from 22% pre-module to 49% post-module (p less than 0.001).  Self-report of 'learning something new' was associated with decreased desire for antibiotics, after adjusting for baseline characteristics (p = 0.001).

Conclusions: An interactive educational kiosk improved knowledge about antibiotics and ARIs.  Learning correlated with changes in personal desire for antibiotics.

Practice implications: By reducing desire for antibiotics, point-of-care interactive educational computer technology may help decrease inappropriate use for antibiotics for ARIs.