ArticleClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2021
Trends in US Outpatient Antibiotic Prescriptions During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic.
Article in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 96 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
96 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 175 citations in OpenAlex.
- The vicious cycle of the public's irrational use of antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections: A mixed methods systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2022Pooled it
- Primary care pharyngotonsillitis complications following absent or deferred antibiotic treatment across the COVID 19 pandemic.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Spatiotemporal trends in tetracycline- and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole-resistantEpidemiology and infection · 2026Article
- Changes in Medication Use During Medicaid Continuous Enrollment and Unwinding.JAMA health forum · 2026Article
- Overview of Methods for Assessing Antimicrobial Use in Outpatient Settings in High-Income Countries: A Narrative Review.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Relating antimicrobial use to wastewater resistance gene patterns via metagenomic analysis of two neighboring treatment plants circa the COVID-19 pandemic.npj antimicrobials and resistance · 2025Article
- Article
- Use of oral fluoroquinolones in France between 2014 and 2023: a nationwide drug utilization study.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2025Article
- Evaluating the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Pediatric Asthma Incidence.The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. In practice · 2025Review
- Article
- Epidemiological characteristics of antimicrobial use in Primary Care in Spain: a nationwide study.Revista espanola de quimioterapia : publicacion oficial de la Sociedad Espanola de Quimioterapia · 2025Observational
- The impact of health and technology shifts on antibiotic use among the elderly in Thailand.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Efficacy of Ivermectin, Chloroquine/Hydroxychloroquine, and Azithromycin in Managing COVID-19: A Systematic Review of Phase III Clinical Trials.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- Returned Rate and Changed Patterns of Systemic Antibiotic Use in Ambulatory Care in Hungary after the Pandemic-A Longitudinal Ecological Study.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- A scoping review of bacterial resistance among inpatients amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of global antimicrobial resistance · 2024Article
- Changes in the Appropriateness of US Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing After the COVID-19 Outbreak: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis of 2016-2021 Data.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2024Article
- Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on antibiotic use in Canadian primary care: a matched-cohort study using EMR data.Antimicrobial resistance and infection control · 2024Article
- Barriers and facilitators to guideline concordant dental antibiotic prescribing in the United States: A qualitative study of the National Dental PBRN.Journal of public health dentistry · 2024Article
- Antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory infections during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: Patterns in a nationwide telehealth service provider.Infection control and hospital epidemiology · 2024Article
36 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe objective of our study was to describe trends in US outpatient antibiotic prescriptions from January through May 2020 and compare with trends in previous years (2017-2019).
methodsWe used data from the IQVIA Total Patient Tracker to estimate the monthly number of patients dispensed antibiotic prescriptions from retail pharmacies from January 2017 through May 2020. We averaged estimates from 2017 through 2019 and defined expected seasonal change as the average percent change from January to May 2017-2019. We calculated percentage point and volume changes in the number of patients dispensed antibiotics from January to May 2020 exceeding expected seasonal changes. We also calculated average percent change in number of patients dispensed antibiotics per month in 2017-2019 versus 2020. Data were analyzed overall and by agent, class, patient age, state, and prescriber specialty.
resultsFrom January to May 2020, the number of patients dispensed antibiotic prescriptions decreased from 20.3 to 9.9 million, exceeding seasonally expected decreases by 33 percentage points and 6.6 million patients. The largest changes in 2017-2019 versus 2020 were observed in April (-39%) and May (-42%). The number of patients dispensed azithromycin increased from February to March 2020 then decreased. Overall, beyond-expected decreases were greatest among children (≤19 years) and agents used for respiratory infections, dentistry, and surgical prophylaxis.
conclusionsFrom January 2020 to May 2020, the number of outpatients with antibiotic prescriptions decreased substantially more than would be expected because of seasonal trends alone, possibly related to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and associated mitigation measures.
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