While there is variation in how healthcare providers use antibiotics, they do contribute to the problem of antibiotic overuse, which gives rise to antibiotic resistance, according to study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Here are six things to know:
1. Researchers analyzed 1.04 million patient visits for acute respiratory infections at clinics or emergency departments at 130 VA medical centers across the nation.
2. The study found that 68 percent of all visits for acute respiratory infection resulted in an antibiotic prescription.
3. Additionally, researchers examined 480,875 visits and 2,594 providers who treated at least 100 patients for acute respiratory infection.
4. They found that 59 percent of the variation in how often antibiotics were prescribed was attributed to the habits of individual providers.
5. By comparison, 28 percent of the variation was related to differences in practice among clinics and 13 percent to differences in practice among hospital centers.
6. "We'd like to use this research to start a conversation among providers and patients about antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory infection, and share the approaches of providers who are prescribing antibiotics less frequently with those who may be prescribing too often," noted the study's lead author Barbara Jones, MD, assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
