One-Third Of Antibiotics Prescribed In U.S. Are Unnecessary: Study

About 30 percent of U.S. antibiotics prescribed for outpatients between 2010 and 2011 were not necessary. A new study highlights the alarming problems that accompany the use of antibiotics during issues that do not require them.

Improper use of the drugs can lead to antibiotic resistance, which also leads to infections that affect about two million and are linked to 23,000 deaths every year in the U.S. alone.

With information gathered from the 2010-2011 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, the team estimated the rate of oral antibiotic prescriptions for outpatients through age and diagnosis.

Of the 184,032 sampled visits, 12.6 percent led to antibiotic prescriptions.

The most common disease that required the prescriptions was sinusitis, with maximum prescriptions per 1,000 people, followed by ear infections and pharyngitis.

While severe respiratory infections led to 221 antibiotic prescriptions every year per 1,000 people, just 111 were thought to be appropriate. Among all conditions and ages from 2010 to 2011 per 1,000, about 506 antibiotic prescriptions were written every year, but just 353 were found to be appropriate.

"Half the antibiotic prescriptions for acute respiratory conditions may have been unnecessary, representing 34 million antibiotic prescriptions annually," the authors wrote. "Collectively, across all conditions, an estimated 30 percent of outpatient, oral antibiotic prescriptions may have been inappropriate."

A 15 percent reduction in the use of antibiotics is called for in order to bring down the use of unrequired drugs in the outpatient department by half by 2020. This was spelt out by the White House National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria.

"This estimate of inappropriate outpatient antibiotic prescriptions can be used to inform antibiotic stewardship programs in ambulatory care by public health and health care delivery care systems in the next 5 years," it said.

The findings were published in the May 3, 2016, issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.