Evidence map›Paper›PMID 20941487›Full record

ArticleEuropean journal of clinical pharmacology2011

Defining antimicrobial prescribing quality indicators: what is a new prescription?

Jos Boesten, Luc Harings, Bjorn Winkens, André Knottnerus, Trudy van der Weijden

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in European journal of clinical pharmacology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Jos BoestenDepartment of General Practice, CAPHRI, School for Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands. Jos.boesten@hag.unimaas.nl
Luc Harings
Bjorn Winkens
André Knottnerus
Trudy van der Weijden

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

unlabelled: Since guidelines on antibiotic drug treatment often focus on appropriate first choice drugs, assessment of guideline adherence should only concentrate on the first drug prescribed, and not on subsequent antibiotics prescribed after failure of the first one. PURPOSE: To determine a valid cut-off point for a definition of "first" or "new" prescription in indicators for the assessment of the quality of antibiotic drug treatment on the basis of pharmaceutical data.

methodsThree possible definitions for the term "new prescription" were compared, based on three different periods of time, viz. more than 35, 28, or 21 days after starting a previous antibiotic. In an observational study, 1,225 antimicrobial prescriptions from the medical files of five family practices were audited ("clinical classification") and compared with a classification based on the three definitions ("technical classification"). Agreement between these clinical and technical classifications was determined by calculating Cohen's kappa. The technical classification was analyzed as a diagnostic test, using the clinical classification as the gold standard, and sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, and post-test probabilities were calculated.

resultsDefining "new prescription" as "more than 35 days after a previous prescription was issued" resulted in a Cohen's kappa of 0.93 (95% CI 0.92-0.98). The diagnostic value of this definition was extremely high, with a sensitivity of 0.976, specificity of 0.987, positive likelihood ratio of 77.7, and negative likelihood ratio of 0.02.

conclusionWe recommend using a cut-off value of 35 days since the last antimicrobial prescription as the definition of a "new prescription" when no diagnostic information is available, i.e., when using pharmaceutical data to assess the quality of antibiotic prescribing behavior.

Indexed as

Practice Patterns, Physicians'Quality Indicators, Health CareAnti-Bacterial AgentsCross-Sectional StudiesDrug PrescriptionsDrug UtilizationFamily PracticeGuideline AdherenceHumansPractice Guidelines as TopicTime FactorsAnti-Bacterial Agents

Identifiers

PMID20941487
PMCPMC3016215

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