PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 565 - 1 Nov 2008

Antibacterial prescribing amongstGPs "consistent"

According to a study aimed at describing the specificdiagnoses for which systemic antibacterials areprescribed, assessing adherence of antibacterial choiceto national guidelines and assessing consistency amongGPs in prescribed volumes of antibacterials forrespiratory, ear and urinary tract disorders, GPs areconsistent in prescribing antibacterials for the threegroups of diseases.

The cross-sectional study included 174 GPs from89 Dutch general practices and analysed morbidity andantibacterial prescription data from the Second DutchNational Survey of General Practice in 2001. Outcomemeasures were the antibacterial prescriptions forrespiratory, ear and urinary tract disorders according tonational guidelines, and the number of systemicantibacterial prescriptions per 1000 patients per GP peryear for all cases and according to ear, respiratory andurinary tract disorders.

For the group of respiratory tract disorders, mostantibacterials were prescribed for acute bronchitis(25%) and sinusitis (22%), followed by acute upperrespiratory tract infection (14%) and acute tonsillitis(9%). Almost all antibacterial prescriptions for urinarytract disorders were prescribed for cystitis (95%) and77% of the prescriptions for ear disorders wereprescribed for acute otitis media. Antibacterialprescriptions for sinusitis and acute tonsillitiscorresponded with recommended first-choiceantibacterials in 80% and 70% of the prescriptions,respectively.Ong DSY, et al. Antibiotics for respiratory, ear and urinary tract disorders andconsistency among GPs. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 62: 587-592, No.3, Sep 2008 801127359

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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 1 Nov 2008 No. 5651173-5503/10/0565-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved