Publication date: Jul 30, 2025

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a surge of remote consultations in Norwegian primary care with unknown implications for antibiotic treatment and outcomes of acute cystitis. To examine whether there were differences in antibiotic treatment or repeat contacts for acute cystitis between remote and in-person consultations. Retrospective cohort study. For the 4-year period 2018-2021, we linked individual registry data on all contacts for cystitis by women aged 16 years and up in general practice and out-of-hours services in Norway with registry data on dispensed antibiotics. Index consultations for cystitis episodes were identified when there had been no urinary tract infection related contacts or antibiotics dispensed at least two weeks before the consultation. We compared index remote vs. index in-person consultations by antibiotic treatment within three days and repeat contacts within 14 days. Remote consultations were defined as consultations by text, telephone or video. Remote consultations for acute cystitis increased markedly, from 0. 5% of acute cystitis consultations in 2018 to 15. 2% in 2021. Index remote consultations were associated with more second line antibiotic treatment (adjusted relative risk (aRR) 1. 05, 95% CI, 1. 03 – 1. 07, P

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