Research aim. The aim of the present study was to examine the attitudes, opinions and knowledge of the use of antibiotics for the treatment of upper respiratory tract infections by means of qualitative methods, with the goal to develop a better understanding of the practice of prescription and use of antibiotics in the area of Zagreb. Participants and methods. As the research is a qualitative one, an interview, i.e. a structured, informal conversation on the research topic has been chosen as the method of data collection. Altogether 10 participants were included in the study, five of which are patients to whom an antibiotic was prescribed, which they used in the last three months, and three female and two male primary health physicians, who prescribed an antibiotic for the treatment of upper respiratory tract infection in the past week. Participants were guaranteed anonymity and confidentiality of the data, the results were cumulatively analysed and no one apart from the research team had access to the data documented during the interview. Results. Physicians unanimously pointed out that a clear clinical finding upon the examination of a patient often leads to prescription of antibiotics without referring the patient to additional diagnostic check-ups, and referring to additional check-ups is at times difficult due to unavailability of certain diagnostic methods, their costs or the lack of patient's will. Patients' pressure on the physician to prescribe them antibiotics is the most important factor which contributes to prescription of antibiotics when there are not actually needed. According to research participants, contribution to the decrease of antibiotics prescription without a justified indication is achievable under following assumptions: better working conditions, continuous patient education and certain features of physician behavior. Participants state that a problem of resistance to certain bacteria is present and they estimate that it refers to a greater extent to hospital conditions and infections. The patients demonstrated basic knowledge of antibiotics. The aforementioned knowledge is based on the differentiation of a bacterial and viral infection and the importance of the overall and prescribed use of that medicine. The acquired research results indicate a homogeneous attitude of the participants towards the importance of the lack of antibiotics availability to the patients without a medical receipt. The prescription should remain in the medical domain in order to decrease their abuse as much as possible. Conclusion. The present study identified a fairly high degree of understanding of the antibiotics use among the patients and a rational prescription among the physicians, but it indicated an additional need for education and measures of raising the public awareness, but also the awareness of all participants in the health care system regarding the importance of antibiotics and their proper use as significant goals in the control of inappropriate antibiotics consumption. Therefore, such qualitative research with the aim of examining the experiences of participants in situ should be extended to a greater number of participants and conducted in entire Croatia in order to identify more relevantly the issue and dynamics of development of bacterial resistance to antibiotics.