Antibiotic prescription patterns in Primary Care for patients with Sore Throat in the United Kingdom (UK) using Real World Data (ID 465)
Reckitt
Funding: This project was funded by Reckitt Benckiser
Abstract
AimsAntibiotic prescriptions are common in primary care settings, despite sore throat (ST) being a self-limiting upper respiratory condition mainly of viral origin, that usually resolves on its own.
We aimed to investigate antibiotics prescribing patterns in sore throat cases in the UK.
Methods
Prescribing data were extracted from >8 million de-identified electronic health records from ≈ 8,500 UK primary care practices, between November 2016 –October 2021. The real-world dataset from IQVIA used a representative demographic proportion (150 practices) of the UK population (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland) acquired through a longitudinal patient database and filtered to identify patients with a diagnosis of ST, tonsillitis, laryngitis, or glandular fever within 14 days of an antibiotic prescription1.
Results
There were 169,989 patients prescribed antibiotics in November 2016 for the selected respiratory infections, including 45% (n=77,108) for ST. Despite a notable reduction in antibiotics prescribed to patients with ST during the COVID-19 pandemic (a 63.6% decline (n=28,134) in November 2020), rates rose proportionately in line with the projected seasonal trend by October 2021 (n=52,256). Most ST patients prescribed antibiotics were over 18 years, with only 29% under 18 years in October 2021. Moreover, 15% (n≈ 4,800) of GPs were high prescribers of antibiotics, accounting for 50% of all antibiotic prescriptions, where 48% were prescribed for patients with ST.
Conclusion
Despite fewer patients seeking GP consultations, this study demonstrates that antibiotic prescriptions for ST remain high. Inappropriate and overuse of antibiotic prescriptions has led to antimicrobial resistance and increasing healthcare costs. These results also suggest that antibiotic prescribing for patients with ST are a sizeable problem that cannot be tackled by guidelines alone. There needs to be a consideration of strategies to enhance public knowledge about self-care therapies through health literacy, and antimicrobial resistance consequences, as well as practitioners prescribing behaviours.
This abstract use a dataset that has been used of other submissions internationally and to national conferences (RCGP). However, has not been presented in the UK as the RCGP conference will only take place in October, after the PCRS conference.
Conflicts of interest: This work was funded by Reckitt Benckiser, and I am a Reckitt Benckiser employee
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