The United States is heading in the wrong direction in terms of antibiotic prescriptions, as a new study reveals that 1 in 4 prescriptions are given to patients for conditions that the drugs cannot effectively treat. The study also indicates that the percentage of antibiotic prescriptions for ineffective conditions was even higher in December 2021 than it was before the start of the pandemic.The article explains that there is a growing concern about disease-causing bacteria evolving in ways that could render antibiotics ineffective for those who truly need them. According to new research, the percentage of people receiving antibiotics for inappropriate reasons dropped slightly in the early stages of the pandemic due to fewer people seeking medical care for infectious or non-infectious reasons. However, the trend soon reverted. The study, published in the journal “Clinical Infectious Diseases” by researchers from the University of Michigan, Northwestern University, and Boston Medical Center, is based on data from over 37.5 million.Children and adults who had private insurance or Medicare Advantage plans from 2017 to 2021 were included in the study. Patients were given antibiotic prescriptions during both in-person and telehealth visits.
The researchers examined any new diagnoses given to each patient on the day they received a prescribed antibiotic, or in the three days leading up to the prescription. If none of these diagnoses justified the use of antibiotics, the prescription was labeled as inappropriate.
Lead author Kao-Ping Chua, M.D., Ph.D. commented, “Our study demonstrates that the decrease in exposure to inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions during the pandemic was only temporary.”Dr. Chua, a pediatrician and health care researcher at the Department of Pediatrics at the U-M Medical School, emphasized the importance of quality improvement initiatives to prevent unnecessary antibiotic prescribing and antimicrobial resistance, which leads to 48,000 deaths in America each year. She is associated with the Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center, the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, and the U-M School of Public Health.
The study found that 60.6 million antibioticDuring the study period from January 2017 to December 2021, a total of prescriptions were dispensed. The percentage of inappropriate prescriptions increased from 25.5% to 27.1% during this timeframe. In December 2019, 1.7% of people received inappropriate antibiotics, which decreased to 0.9% in April 2020 due to fewer people receiving antibiotics in general, but then rose again to 1.7% by December 2021. Certain groups, such as older adults with Medicare Advantage coverage, were more likely to receive inappropriate antibiotics, with 30% of their antibiotics being classified as inappropriate compared to 26% for adults overall.It starts with private health insurance and 17% of antibiotics for children with private insurance. Among the diagnoses listed for people who received antibiotics for inappropriate reasons, “contact with and suspected exposure to COVID-19” was one of the top two most common reasons from March 2020 through December 2021. There is no evidence that taking antibiotics after an exposure can reduce the risk of developing COVID-19. Of all the inappropriately prescribed antibiotics dispensed in the last half of 2021, 15% were for a COVID-19 infection. COVID-19 infections accounted for 2% of all antibiotic prescribing — regardless of app.Inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions decreased from March 2020 through December 2021. Telehealth appointments made up 9% of these prescriptions in the latter half of 2021, a slight decrease from 2020 when there were almost no telehealth-based antibiotic prescriptions. Between 28% to 32% of antibiotic prescriptions had no available diagnosis to assess appropriateness, possibly due to unbilled appointments or prescription refills.During the early months of the pandemic, 45% of the patients involved in the study were given antibiotics at least once in the five years, and 13% of them received antibiotics four or more times.
