ArticleAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland)2021
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Antibiotic Prescribing Trends in Outpatient Care: A Nationwide, Quasi-Experimental Approach.
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 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on antibiotic consumption: A systematic review comparing 2019 and 2020 data.Frontiers in public health · 2022Pooled it
- Article
- The impact of health and technology shifts on antibiotic use among the elderly in Thailand.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Antimicrobial sales profile in Brazil from 2014 to 2021: analysis of records from the National System of Controlled Products Management.Revista brasileira de epidemiologia = Brazilian journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Article
- 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
- Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on patterns of drug utilization: A case study at national hospital.PloS one · 2024Article
- Use of antibiotics in Paediatric Primary Health Care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.Enfermedades infecciosas y microbiologia clinica (English ed.) · 2023Observational
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Ambulatory Care Antibiotic Use in Hungary: A Population-Based Observational Study.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- A multi-institutional exploration of emergency medicine physicians' attitudes and behaviours on antibiotic use during the COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed-methods study.Antimicrobial resistance and infection control · 2023Article
- Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Antibiotic Utilisation in Malaysian Primary Care Clinics: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Predicted Environmental Risk Assessment of Antimicrobials with Increased Consumption in Portugal during the COVID-19 Pandemic; The Groundwork for the Forthcoming Water Quality Survey.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Antibiotic Utilization during COVID-19: Are We Over-Prescribing?Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Prescription trends of antiseizure medications before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
- Variability in changes in physician outpatient antibiotic prescribing from 2019 to 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada.Antimicrobial stewardship & healthcare epidemiology : ASHE · 2023Article
- Antibiotic use in township hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic in Shandong, China.Antimicrobial resistance and infection control · 2022Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Antibiotic Prescribing by Dentists in Galicia, Spain: A Quasi-Experimental Approach.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- [Use of antibiotics in Paediatric Primary Health Care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic].Enfermedades infecciosas y microbiologia clinica · 2022Article
- Antibiotic Prescription Patterns in the Paediatric Primary Care Setting before and after the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: An Analysis Using the AWaRe Metrics.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread globally and is currently having a damaging impact on nearly all countries in the world. The implementation of stringent measures to stop COVID-19 dissemination had an influence on healthcare services and associated procedures, possibly causing antibiotic consumption fluctuations. This paper aims to evaluate the immediate and long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on antibiotic prescribing trends in outpatient care of the Portuguese public health sector, including in primary healthcare centers and hospitals, as well as on specific antibiotic groups known to be closely associated with increased resistance. Segmented regression analysis with interrupted time series data was used to analyze whether the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact in antibiotic prescribing tendencies at a national level. The outcomes from this quasi-experimental approach demonstrate that, at the beginning of the pandemic, a significant, immediate decrease in the overall antibiotic prescribing trends was noticed in the context of outpatient care in Portugal, followed by a statistically non-significant fall over the long term. The data also showed a significant reduction in the prescription of particular antibiotic classes (antibiotics from the Watch group, 3rd-generation cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, and clarithromycin) upon COVID-19 emergence. These findings revealed an important disruption in antibiotics prescribing caused by the current public health emergency.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.