ArticleClinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases2021
Investigating the impact of COVID-19 on primary care antibiotic prescribing in North West London across two epidemic waves.
Article in Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers.
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Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 96 citations in OpenAlex.
- Primary care pharyngotonsillitis complications following absent or deferred antibiotic treatment across the COVID 19 pandemic.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Assessment of hand hygiene awareness and practice levels amid the COVID-19 period: a comparative study of the public in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Article
- Adherence to antibiotic prescribing guidelines in Dutch primary care: an analysis of national prescription data on ear and respiratory tract symptoms and conditions among 384 general practices.Family practice · 2025Article
- Increase in Antibiotic Utilisation in Primary Care Post COVID-19 Pandemic.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Implementation of a National Antimicrobial Stewardship Training Programme for General Practice: A Case Study.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Observational study of antibiotic prescribing patterns by age and sex in primary care in England: why we need to take this variation into account to evaluate antibiotic stewardship and predict AMR variation.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2025Article
- Online availability of antibiotics from within the UK: shifting patterns from 2016 to 2023.The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · 2024Article
- Antimicrobial Prescribing Patterns in GP Practices in Northern Ireland.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 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
- Community antibiotic prescribing in patients with COVID-19 across three pandemic waves: a population-based study in Scotland, UK.BMJ open · 2024Article
- Evaluation of an automated feedback intervention to improve antibiotic prescribing among primary care physicians (OPEN Stewardship): a multinational controlled interrupted time-series study.Microbiology spectrum · 2024Article
- Article
- Comparing indicators of disease severity among patients presenting to hospital for urinary tract infections before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2024Article
- Article
- Treatment seeking and antibiotic use for urinary tract infection symptoms in the time of COVID-19 in Tanzania and Uganda.Journal of global health · 2024Article
- Antibiotic prescription in ambulatory care for COVID-19 patients: a cohort analysis in four European countries.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2024Article
- Article
- The Trend of Antibiotic Consumption After the COVID-19 Pandemic: Approach to Future Outbreaks.Infection and drug resistance · 2024Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on community antibiotic consumption in the EU/European Economic Area: a changepoint analysis.The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesWe investigated the impact of COVID-19 and national pandemic response on primary care antibiotic prescribing in London.
methodsIndividual prescribing records between 2015 and 2020 for 2 million residents in north west London were analysed. Prescribing records were linked to SARS-CoV-2 test results. Prescribing volumes, in total, and stratified by patient characteristics, antibiotic class and AWaRe classification, were investigated. Interrupted time series analysis was performed to detect measurable change in the trend of prescribing volume since the national lockdown in March 2020, immediately before the first COVID-19 peak in London.
resultsRecords covering 366 059 patients, 730 001 antibiotic items and 848 201 SARS-CoV-2 tests between January and November 2020 were analysed. Before March 2020, there was a background downward trend (decreasing by 584 items/month) in primary care antibiotic prescribing. This reduction rate accelerated to 3504 items/month from March 2020. This rate of decrease was sustained beyond the initial peak, continuing into winter and the second peak. Despite an overall reduction in prescribing volume, co-amoxiclav, a broad-spectrum "Access" antibiotic, prescribing rose by 70.1% in patients aged 50 and older from February to April. Commonly prescribed antibiotics within 14 days of a positive SARS-CoV-2 test were amoxicillin (863/2474, 34.9%) and doxycycline (678/2474, 27.4%). This aligned with national guidelines on management of community pneumonia of unclear cause. The proportion of "Watch" antibiotics used decreased during the peak in COVID-19. DISCUSSION: A sustained reduction in community antibiotic prescribing has been observed since the first lockdown. Investigation of community-onset infectious diseases and potential unintended consequences of reduced prescribing is urgently needed.
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