ArticleAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland)2021
Trends in Antibiotic Prescribing in Out-of-Hours Primary Care in England from January 2016 to June 2020 to Understand Behaviours during the First Wave of COVID-19.
Article in Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Estimating cost savings from reducing antibiotic overprescription in european general practices.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2026Article
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on antibiotic prescription rates in out-of-hours primary care - a register-based study in Denmark.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2025Article
- Oral Antibacterial Drug Prescribing in Primary Care Out-of-Hours Services: A Scoping Review.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Barriers, enablers, benefits, and drawbacks to point-of-care testing: a survey of the general practice out-of-hours service in Scotland.BJGP open · 2024Article
- Trends in antibiotic prescribing in primary care out-of-hours doctors' services in Ireland.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2024Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing for common infections in primary care in England: a time-series analyses using OpenSAFELY and effects of predictors including deprivation.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2023Article
- Carbapenem use correlates with percentage of patients with COVID-19 in intensive care units.Infection · 2023Article
- Trends and Patterns of Antibiotic Prescriptions in Primary Care Institutions in Southwest China, 2017-2022.Infection and drug resistance · 2023Article
- Changes in Antibiotic Prescribing Patterns in Danish General Practice during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Register-Based Study.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Antibiotic Prescribing in Dutch Daytime and Out-of-Hours General Practice during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Retrospective Database Study.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Catch-22: War, Refugees, COVID-19, and the Scourge of Antimicrobial Resistance.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Community Antibiotic Prescribing and Stewardship: A Qualitative Interview Study with General Practitioners in England.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Antibiotic Prescribing Trends in Belgian Out-of-Hours Primary Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Observational Study Using Routinely Collected Health Data.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Non-Visit-Based and Non-Infection-Related Antibiotic Use in the US: A Cohort Study of Privately Insured Patients During 2016-2018.Open forum infectious diseases · 2021Article
- The Pandemic beyond the Pandemic: A Scoping Review on the Social Relationships between COVID-19 and Antimicrobial Resistance.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Molecular Basis of Interactions between the Antibiotic Nitrofurantoin and Human Serum Albumin: A Mechanism for the Rapid Drug Blood Transportation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
- Surveillance of Antibacterial Usage during the COVID-19 Pandemic in England, 2020.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Implications of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Emergence of Antimicrobial Resistance: Adjusting the Response to Future Outbreaks.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Evolution of Antimicrobial Consumption During the First Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
We describe the trend of antibiotic prescribing in out-of-hours (OOH) general practices (GP) before and during England's first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed practice-level prescribing records between January 2016 to June 2020 to report the trends for the total prescribing volume, prescribing of broad-spectrum antibiotics and key agents included in the national Quality Premium. We performed a time-series analysis to detect measurable changes in the prescribing volume associated with COVID-19. Before COVID-19, the total prescribing volume and the percentage of broad-spectrum antibiotics continued to decrease in-hours (IH). The prescribing of broad-spectrum antibiotics was higher in OOH (OOH: 10.1%, IH: 8.7%), but a consistent decrease in the trimethoprim-to-nitrofurantoin ratio was observed OOH. The OOH antibiotic prescribing volume diverged from the historical trend in March 2020 and started to decrease by 5088 items per month. Broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing started to increase in OOH and IH. In OOH, co-amoxiclav and doxycycline peaked in March to May in 2020, which was out of sync with seasonality peaks (Winter) in previous years. While this increase might be explained by the implementation of the national guideline to use co-amoxiclav and doxycycline to manage pneumonia in the community during COVID-19, further investigation is required to see whether the observed reduction in OOH antibiotic prescribing persists and how this reduction might influence antimicrobial resistance and patient outcomes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.