Abstract
Background The aim of this study was to estimate trends in primary care consultations and antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in the UK from 1997 to 2006. Methods Data were analysed for 100 000 subjects registered with 78 family practices in the UK General Practice Research Database; the numbers of consultations for RTI and associated antibiotic prescriptions were enumerated. Results The consultation rate for RTI declined in females from 442.2 per 1000 registered patients in 1997 to 330.9 in 2006, and in males from 318.5 to 249.0. The rate of consultations for colds, rhinitis and upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) declined by 4.2 (95% CI 2.3-6.1) per 1000 per year in females and by 3.6 (2.3-4.8) in males. The rate of antibiotic prescribing for RTI was higher in females and declined by 8.5 (2.0-15.1) per 1000 in females and 6.7 (2.7-10.8) in males. For colds, rhinitis and URTI, the proportion of consultations with antibiotics was prescribed declined by 1.7% per year in females and 1.8% in males. Conclusions Decreasing frequency of consultation and antibiotic prescription for colds, rhinitis and 'URTI' continues to drive a reduction in the rate of antibiotic utilization for RTIs.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 512-520 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Journal of Public Health |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2009 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was supported by a grant from the Wellcome Trust and Research Councils’ Joint Initiative in Electronic Patient Records and Databases in Research. Funding to pay the Open Access publication charges for this article was provided by internal funds from King’s College London, Division of Health and Social Care Research.
Funding Information:
This study is based in part on data from the Full Feature General Practice Research Database obtained under licence from the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. However, the interpretation and conclusions contained in this study are those of the authors alone. Access to the GPRD database was funded through the Medical Research Council’s licence agreement with MHRA. We thank David Lloyd of the Information Centre, Leeds, for providing us with national antibiotic prescribing data.
Keywords
- Antibacterial agents
- Drug prescription
- Drug resistance
- Family practice
- Microbial
- Respiratory tract infections
