Late-career, high-volume practice providers more likely to prescribe antibiotics: 5 takeaways

Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry and St. Joseph's Health Care researchers found late-career physicians and those from high-volume practices are more likely to prescribe antibiotic prescriptions for nonbacterial acute upper respiratory infections, according to Medscape. Both organizations are in Ontario, Canada.

Researchers assessed 185,014 patient records from 8,990 primary care physicians between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2012.

Here are four takeaways:

1. Physicians issued antibiotic prescriptions to 46.2 percent of patients.

2. Of those patients receiving antibiotics, most prescriptions were for patients with acute bronchitis or acute sinusitis.

3. Researchers found 42.9 percent of late-career physicians and 47.7 percent of physicians with a patient volume surpassing 45 patients daily issued prescriptions.

4. The researchers concluded, "Our findings should be considered when planning interventions to reduce inappropriate prescribing. Because clinical guidelines and other approaches to behavioral change do not appear to have had the desired effect on practice, further research on alternative strategies to deter inappropriate antibiotic prescribing is needed."

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