Antibiotic prescribing patterns and hospital admissions with respiratory and urinary tract infections

• Published in: European journal of clinical pharmacology 2008-10, Vol.64 (10), p.1005-1011
• Main Authors: Fernández Urrusuno, Rocío, Pedregal González, Miguel, Torrecilla Rojas, Ma. Amparo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anti-Bacterial Agents - therapeutic use; Antibiotics; Bacterial diseases; Bacterial diseases of the urinary system; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cross-Sectional Studies; Drug Utilization; Female; Hospitalization - statistics & numerical data; Human bacterial diseases; Humans; Infections; Infectious diseases; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Nephrology. Urinary tract diseases; Outcome Assessment (Health Care); Pharmacoepidemiology and Prescription; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Pharmacology/Toxicology; Physicians, Family - statistics & numerical data; Prescriptions; Primary care; Respiratory diseases; Respiratory Tract Infections - complications; Respiratory Tract Infections - drug therapy; Retrospective Studies; Urinary system involvement in other diseases. Miscellaneous; Urinary tract diseases; Urinary Tract Infections - complications; Urinary Tract Infections - drug therapy; Urinary tract. Prostate gland
• ISSN: 0031-6970; 1432-1041
• DOI: 10.1007/s00228-008-0514-6

Objective To explore the relationship between antibiotic prescribing indicators for assessing the prescribing quality of general practitioners (GPs) and populations’ health outcome indicators. Design Descriptive cross-sectional study. Setting Aljarafe Primary Health Care Area (population 321,034) under the administrative jurisdiction of the Andalusian Public Health Care Service, Spain. In total, 162 GPs, representing 95.29% of the total number of GPs in the study area, were included in the analysis. Methods Antibiotic prescribing indicators based on clinical evidence and recommendations from local resistance patterns were chosen by the consensus group technique. Hospital admissions due to respiratory tract and urinary infections in the three hospitals of the study area were recorded. Multiple regression analysis was carried out to determine the relationship between community prescribing of antibiotics and hospital admissions due to serious complications from respiratory and urinary infections. Results The higher prescribing of antibiotics adjusted for patients and working days was associated with a significantly higher number of adjusted hospital admissions due complications arising from respiratory and urinary infections ( p