• J Am Geriatr Soc · Oct 2018

    Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing for Older Adults in the United States: 2011 to 2014.

    • Sarah Kabbani, Danielle Palms, Monina Bartoces, Nimalie Stone, and Lauri A Hicks.
    • Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
    • J Am Geriatr Soc. 2018 Oct 1; 66 (10): 1998-2002.

    ObjectivesTo characterize antibiotics prescribed to older adults to guide efforts to improve antibiotic use.DesignDescriptive analysis.SettingAmbulatory.ParticipantsAdults aged 65 and older in the United States.MeasurementsInformation on outpatient antibiotic prescriptions dispensed for older adults from 2011 to 2014 was extracted from the IQVIA Xponent database. A chi-square trend analysis was conducted to assess annual changes in antibiotic prescribing rates. A descriptive analysis of prescribing rates by antibiotic, age group, sex, state, Census region, and provider specialty was conducted.ResultsFrom 2011 to 2014, outpatient antibiotic prescribing rates remained stable in older U.S. adults (P = .89). In 2014, older adults were dispensed 51.6 million prescriptions (1,115 prescriptions/1,000 persons). Persons aged 75 and older had a higher prescribing rate (1,157 prescriptions/1,000 persons) than those aged 65 to 74 (1,084 prescriptions/1,000 persons). Prescribing rates were highest in the South 1228 prescriptions/1,000 persons) and lowest in the West (854 prescriptions/1,000 persons). The most commonly prescribed class was quinolones, followed by penicillins and macrolides. Azithromycin was the most commonly prescribed drug, followed by amoxicillin and ciprofloxacin. Internists and family physicians prescribed 43% of antibiotic courses.ConclusionOn average, in 2014, U.S. adults aged 65 and older received enough outpatient antibiotic courses for every older adult to receive at least 1. Quinolones and azithromycin are potential targets for assessing the appropriateness of antibiotic prescribing in this population. Interventions to improve use targeting internists and family physicians in the South Census region might have the potential to have the greatest effect.© 2018, Copyright the Author Journal compilation © 2018, The American Geriatrics Society.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…