Influenza-like illness and antimicrobial prescribing in Australian general practice from 2015 to 2017: a national longitudinal study using the MedicineInsight dataset

ObjectivesTo investigate the epidemiology of influenza-like illness (ILI) by general practice and patient characteristics, and explore whether sociodemographic variables or comorbidities affect antiviral or antibiotic prescribing.DesignOpen cohort study.SettingA representative sample of 550 Australi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMJ open 2019-05, Vol.9 (4), p.e026396-e026396
Main Authors: Bernardo, Carla De Oliveira, Gonzalez-Chica, David, Stocks, Nigel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Ambulatory care
Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology
Antibiotics
Antiviral drugs
Australia - epidemiology
Child
Child, Preschool
Comorbidity
Databases, Factual
Drug Prescriptions - statistics & numerical data
Ethnicity
Female
General Practice - statistics & numerical data
General practice / Family practice
Humans
Illnesses
Incidence
Infections
Influenza
Influenza, Human - drug therapy
Influenza, Human - epidemiology
Longitudinal studies
Male
Medical records
Middle Aged
Patients
Pediatrics
Practice Patterns, Physicians
Primary care
Retrospective Studies
Sociodemographics
Young Adult
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Summary:ObjectivesTo investigate the epidemiology of influenza-like illness (ILI) by general practice and patient characteristics, and explore whether sociodemographic variables or comorbidities affect antiviral or antibiotic prescribing.DesignOpen cohort study.SettingA representative sample of 550 Australian general practices contributing data to the MedicineInsight programme.Participants4 228 149 patients of all age groups who had at least one consultation between 2015 and 2017. Median age was 37 years (Interquartile range: 21–57), 54.4% women, 16.4% aged ≥65 years, 2.2% Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, 17.6% had a chronic disease and 18.1% a mental health condition.Primary and secondary outcome measuresILI consultation rates (per 1000 consultations) were calculated using all ILI diagnoses for all clinical encounters with a general practitioner between 2015 and 2017. Antiviral and antibiotic prescribing for ILI cases were investigated and logistic regression models adjusted for practice and patient characteristics used to analyse associations.ResultsILI consultation rates in 2017 were higher than in previous years. Antiviral prescribing increased from 20.6% in 2015, to 23.7 in 2016 and 29.7% in 2017, while antibiotic prescribing decreased from 30.3% to 28.0% and 26.7%, respectively (p
ISSN:2044-6055
2044-6055
DOI:10.1136/bmjopen-2018-026396