ReviewCureus2025
Pattern in the Antibiotic Prescribing Practices at Primary Health Settings in India: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Review in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Impact of WHO AWaRe Antibiotic Handbook training on antibiotics prescribing knowledge among private primary care providers: a vignette-based, prep-post pilot study in Patna, India.Antimicrobial resistance and infection control · 2026Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the main public health concerns in India, and it is stimulated through the uncontrolled overprescription of antibiotics within primary health care (PHC) centers. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluate the usage pattern of antibiotics among Indian PHCs for prevalence, antibiotic type, and World Health Organization (WHO) access, watch, reserve (AWaRe) guidelines compliance. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar (January 2000-July 2025) for Indian PHC antibiotic prevalence studies. Observational and intervention studies with reported types and rates of prescriptions were considered for inclusion. Extraction was done by a standardized tool, and quality was evaluated by the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and Cochrane Risk of Bias tools. Pooled prevalence of prescribing was estimated by random-effects meta-analysis, with subgroup analyses by region and setting. Eight studies incorporating more than 28,000 patient encounters reported a combined antibiotic prescribing prevalence of 65% (95% CI: 54-75%; I² = 92%). Broad-spectrum "Watch" antibiotics (e.g., fluoroquinolones, cephalosporins) prevailed, and there was suboptimal usage of "Access" (31.6%) antibiotics. Appropriate overprescribing occurred for the wrong infections, such as the upper respiratory tract infections (70-80%). Higher usage prevailed among northern compared with southern states (72% vs. 62%). Indian PHCs' overprescription of antibiotics because of system drivers necessitates urgent stewardship interventions, enhanced diagnosis, and AWaRe guideline adherence for addressing AMR.
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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.