ArticleClinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases2022
Has the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the seasonality of outpatient antibiotic use and influenza activity? A time-series analysis from 2014 to 2021.
Article in Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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6 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on antibiotic treatment for respiratory tract infections in Norwegian primary care.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- Factors associated with antibiotic prescription among patients with respiratory illness in Thailand: The potential impact of rapid influenza diagnostic testing in antimicrobial stewardship.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2026Article
- Article
- SARS-CoV-2 andFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025Observational
- Community antibiotic consumption in the European Union/European economic area: late-pandemic rebound and seasonality analysis.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2024Article
- A Time Series Analysis Evaluating Antibiotic Prescription Rates in Long-Term Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Alberta and Ontario, Canada.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
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Abstract
objectiveTo assess the influence of the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and the implementation of public health measures on the seasonality of outpatient antibiotic use and their possible association with the incidence of influenza.
methodsWe performed a time-series ecological study in 1516 primary care centres of Andalusia, Spain, comparing the coronavirus disease 2019 period (April 2020 to March 2021) with the 6 previous years. We assessed the number of packs and defined daily doses per 1000 inhabitants of antibacterials and key antibiotics commonly used for acute respiratory tract infections and the number of influenza-positive cases per 100 000 inhabitants. We calculated the correlation between variables and analyzed the seasonal patterns and differences in quarterly antibiotic use.
resultsFor all quarters, a significant correlation was observed between influenza activity and antibiotic use (Spearman's r = 0.94; p < 0.001). Before the pandemic period, both variables presented similar seasonal patterns. After the start of the pandemic, influenza activity was suppressed and the pattern of antibiotic use flattened into a straight line (R DISCUSSION: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has strongly influenced the seasonality of antibiotic use in primary care. The decline in respiratory viruses, among which the influenza virus is a major player that may act as a proxy for general prevalence, is proposed as a reason for the flattening of the seasonal fluctuations of outpatient antibiotic use in our region.
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