Unnecessary antibiotic prescribing in a Canadian primary care setting: a descriptive analysis using routinely collected electronic medical record data.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Unnecessary antibiotic use in the community in Canada is not well defined. Our objective was to quantify unnecessary antibiotic prescribing in a Canadian primary care setting.

Methods

We performed a descriptive analysis in Ontario from April 2011 to March 2016 using the Electronic Medical Records Primary Care database linked to other health administrative data sets at ICES. We determined antibiotic prescribing rates (per 100 patient-physician encounters) for 23 common conditions and estimated rates of unnecessary prescribing using predefined expected prescribing rates, both stratified by condition and patient age group.

Results

The study included 341 physicians, 204 313 patients and 499 570 encounters. The rate of unnecessary antibiotic prescribing for incl

SUBMITTER: Schwartz KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7207032 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature