Skip to main content

Inappropriate Antibiotic Prescribing Identified in Safety-Net Populations

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on May 30, 2024.

By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, May 30, 2024 -- Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing is common with or without a plausible antibiotic indication, and inappropriate prescribing is also common in U.S. emergency department visits, according to a study published online April 26 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine and a second study published May 14 in Antimicrobial Stewardship and Healthcare Epidemiology.

Joseph B. Ladines-Lim, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues examined the differences in inappropriate prescribing with or without a plausible indication between safety-net and non-safety-net populations. The analyses included 67,065,108 and 122,731,809 weighted visits for children and adults, respectively. The researchers found that the prevalence of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing was 11.7 and 22.0 percent, respectively, with a plausible indication among children in the safety-net and non-safety-net populations and 11.8 and 8.6 percent, respectively, without a plausible indication. For adults, the corresponding prevalence was 12.1 and 14.3 percent and 48.2 and 32.3 percent.

In a second study, Ladines-Lim and colleagues used national emergency department visit data from 2016 to 2021 to estimate the proportion of visits with inappropriate antibiotic prescribing. There were 819,395,799 weighted emergency department visits; 18.6 percent of these visits had one or more antibiotic prescription. The researchers found that 27.6 percent of the visits with antibiotic prescriptions had inappropriate prescribing, with 14.9 and 12.7 percent, respectively, with and without a plausible antibiotic indication. Of visits with inappropriate antibiotic prescribing, 54.0 and 46.0 percent had and did not have a plausible antibiotic indication, respectively.

"Emergency department antibiotic stewardship initiatives should focus both on reducing antibiotic prescribing for infectious, antibiotic-inappropriate conditions and on improving coding quality for antibiotic prescriptions," write the authors of the second study.

Abstract/Full Text 1 (subscription or payment may be required)

Abstract/Full Text 2 (subscription or payment may be required)

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Read this next

Antibiotic Exposure Before Age 2 May Increase Risk for Chronic Pediatric Conditions

WEDNESDAY, April 30, 2025 -- Children receiving multiple antibiotic courses between birth and age 2 years may have a higher risk for some chronic conditions, according to a study...

Infection Tied to One-Fourth of Deaths With Lower-Risk Myelodysplastic Syndromes

TUESDAY, April 22, 2025 -- Roughly one in 14 people with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (LR-MDS) have an infection in the first year after diagnosis, according to a study...

Possible Fecal Contamination Prompts Butter Recall

FRIDAY, April 11, 2025 -- More than 1,700 pounds of butter are being recalled due to possible contamination with coliform, a type of bacteria found in fecal matter, according to...

More news resources

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.