Unnecessary Antibiotics for Acute Respiratory Tract Infections: Association With Care Setting and Patient Demographics

Background. Up to 40% of antibiotics are prescribed unnecessarily for acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs). We sought to define factors associated with antibiotic overprescribing of ARTIs to inform efforts to improve practice. Methods. We conducted a retrospective analysis of ARTI visits between 2006 and 2010 from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Those surveys provide a representative sample of US visits to community-based physicians and to hospital-based emergency departments (EDs) and outpatient practices. Patient factors (age, sex, race, underlying lung disease, tobacco use, insurance), physician specialty, practice demographics (percentage poverty, median household income, percentage with a Bachelor's Degree, urban-rural status, geographic region), and care setting (ED, hospital, or community-based practice) were evaluated as predictors of antibiotic overprescribing for ARTIs. Results. Hospital and community-practice visits had more antibiotic overprescribing than ED visits (odds ratio [OR] = 1.64 and 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.27–2.12 and OR = 1.59 and 95% CI, 1.26–2.01, respectively). Care setting had significant interactions with geographic region and urban and rural location. The quartile with the lowest percentage of college-educated residents had significantly greater overprescribing (adjusted OR = 1.41; 95% CI, 1.07–1.86) than the highest quartile. Current tobacco users were overprescribed more often than nonsmokers (OR = 1.71; 95% CI, 1.38–2.12). Patient age, insurance, and provider specialty were other significant predictors. Conclusions. Tobacco use and a lower grouped rate of college education were associated with overprescribing and may reflect poor health literacy. A focus on educating the patient may be an effective approach to stewardship.