Article Text
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Commentary on:
Context
Unnecessary antibiotic use in the community is a major driver for the development of resistant bacterial carriage.1 Despite the self-limiting nature of most acute respiratory tract infections (RTIs),2 a substantial proportion of consultations in the community result in an antibiotic prescription.3 Clinicians over-prescribe antibiotics partly because non-antibiotic management might result in more complications, and because more serious infections can initially present innocuously.4 This study explored whether the incidence of specific infective complications was higher in patients registered with general practices that prescribed fewer antibiotics for self-limiting RTIs.
Methods
This was a retrospective observational cohort study using routinely collected data from 2005 to 2014 in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). The complications included incident events of diagnoses of pneumonia, peritonsillar abscess, mastoiditis, …
Footnotes
Competing interests CCB has carried out studies of antibiotic use in the community and holds several grants in the field.
Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed