Too much and too little? Prevalence and extent of antibiotic use in a New Zealand region.
J Antimicrob Chemother
; 66(8): 1921-6, 2011 Aug.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-21622675
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
Although antibiotic use in the community is a significant contributor to resistance, little is known about social patterns of use. This study aimed to explore the use of antibiotics by age, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status and rurality.METHODS:
Data were obtained on all medicines dispensed to ambulatory patients in one isolated town for a year, and data on antibiotics are presented in this paper. Demographic details were obtained from pharmacy records or by matching to a national patient dataset.RESULTS:
During the study year, 51% of the population received a prescription for one or more antibiotics, and on average people in the region received 10.15 defined daily doses (DDDs). Prevalence of use was higher for females (ratio, 1.18), and for young people (under 25) and the elderly (75 and over), and the amount in DDDs/person/year broadly followed this pattern. Maori (indigenous New Zealanders) were less likely to receive a prescription (48% of the population) than non-Maori (55%) and received smaller quantities on average. Rural Maori, including rural Maori children, received few prescriptions and low quantities of antibiotics compared with other population groups.CONCLUSIONS:
The level of antibiotic use in the general population is high, despite campaigns to try to reduce unnecessary use. The prevalence of acute rheumatic fever is high amongst rural Maori, and consequently treatment guidelines recommend prophylactic use of antibiotics for sore throat in this population. This makes the comparatively very low level of use of antibiotics amongst rural Maori children very concerning.
Texto completo:
1
Bases de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Uso de Medicamentos
/
Antibacterianos
Tipo de estudo:
Guideline
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
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Aged80
/
Child
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Child, preschool
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Female
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Humans
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Infant
/
Male
País/Região como assunto:
Oceania
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Antimicrob Chemother
Ano de publicação:
2011
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Nova Zelândia