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Common Infections and Antibiotic Prescribing during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Primary Care-Based Observational Cohort Study

Presentation and antibiotic prescribing for common infectious disease episodes decreased substantially during the first COVID-19 pandemic wave in Dutch general practice. We set out to determine the course of these variables during the first pandemic year. We conducted a retrospective observational c...

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Autores principales: Boeijen, Josi A., van der Velden, Alike W., Hullegie, Saskia, Platteel, Tamara N., Zwart, Dorien L. M., Damoiseaux, Roger A. M. J., Venekamp, Roderick P., van de Pol, Alma C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8698485/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34943733
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10121521
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author Boeijen, Josi A.
van der Velden, Alike W.
Hullegie, Saskia
Platteel, Tamara N.
Zwart, Dorien L. M.
Damoiseaux, Roger A. M. J.
Venekamp, Roderick P.
van de Pol, Alma C.
author_facet Boeijen, Josi A.
van der Velden, Alike W.
Hullegie, Saskia
Platteel, Tamara N.
Zwart, Dorien L. M.
Damoiseaux, Roger A. M. J.
Venekamp, Roderick P.
van de Pol, Alma C.
author_sort Boeijen, Josi A.
collection PubMed
description Presentation and antibiotic prescribing for common infectious disease episodes decreased substantially during the first COVID-19 pandemic wave in Dutch general practice. We set out to determine the course of these variables during the first pandemic year. We conducted a retrospective observational cohort study using routine health care data from the Julius General Practitioners’ Network. All patients registered in the pre-pandemic year (n = 425,129) and/or during the first pandemic year (n = 432,122) were included. Relative risks for the number of infectious disease episodes (respiratory tract/ear, urinary tract, gastrointestinal, and skin), in total and those treated with antibiotics, and proportions of episodes treated with antibiotics (prescription rates) were calculated. Compared to the pre-pandemic year, primary care presentation for common infections remained lower during the full first pandemic year (RR, 0.77; CI, 0.76–0.78), mainly attributed to a sustained decline in respiratory tract/ear and gastrointestinal infection episodes. Presentation for urinary tract and skin infection episodes declined during the first wave, but returned to pre-pandemic levels during the second and start of the third wave. Antibiotic prescription rates were lower during the full first pandemic year (24%) as compared to the pre-pandemic year (28%), mainly attributed to a 10% lower prescription rate for respiratory tract/ear infections; the latter was not accompanied by an increase in complications. The decline in primary care presentation for common infections during the full first COVID-19 pandemic year, together with lower prescription rates for respiratory tract/ear infections, resulted in a substantial reduction in antibiotic prescribing in Dutch primary care.
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spelling pubmed-86984852021-12-24 Common Infections and Antibiotic Prescribing during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Primary Care-Based Observational Cohort Study Boeijen, Josi A. van der Velden, Alike W. Hullegie, Saskia Platteel, Tamara N. Zwart, Dorien L. M. Damoiseaux, Roger A. M. J. Venekamp, Roderick P. van de Pol, Alma C. Antibiotics (Basel) Article Presentation and antibiotic prescribing for common infectious disease episodes decreased substantially during the first COVID-19 pandemic wave in Dutch general practice. We set out to determine the course of these variables during the first pandemic year. We conducted a retrospective observational cohort study using routine health care data from the Julius General Practitioners’ Network. All patients registered in the pre-pandemic year (n = 425,129) and/or during the first pandemic year (n = 432,122) were included. Relative risks for the number of infectious disease episodes (respiratory tract/ear, urinary tract, gastrointestinal, and skin), in total and those treated with antibiotics, and proportions of episodes treated with antibiotics (prescription rates) were calculated. Compared to the pre-pandemic year, primary care presentation for common infections remained lower during the full first pandemic year (RR, 0.77; CI, 0.76–0.78), mainly attributed to a sustained decline in respiratory tract/ear and gastrointestinal infection episodes. Presentation for urinary tract and skin infection episodes declined during the first wave, but returned to pre-pandemic levels during the second and start of the third wave. Antibiotic prescription rates were lower during the full first pandemic year (24%) as compared to the pre-pandemic year (28%), mainly attributed to a 10% lower prescription rate for respiratory tract/ear infections; the latter was not accompanied by an increase in complications. The decline in primary care presentation for common infections during the full first COVID-19 pandemic year, together with lower prescription rates for respiratory tract/ear infections, resulted in a substantial reduction in antibiotic prescribing in Dutch primary care. MDPI 2021-12-13 /pmc/articles/PMC8698485/ /pubmed/34943733 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10121521 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Boeijen, Josi A.
van der Velden, Alike W.
Hullegie, Saskia
Platteel, Tamara N.
Zwart, Dorien L. M.
Damoiseaux, Roger A. M. J.
Venekamp, Roderick P.
van de Pol, Alma C.
Common Infections and Antibiotic Prescribing during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Primary Care-Based Observational Cohort Study
title Common Infections and Antibiotic Prescribing during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Primary Care-Based Observational Cohort Study
title_full Common Infections and Antibiotic Prescribing during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Primary Care-Based Observational Cohort Study
title_fullStr Common Infections and Antibiotic Prescribing during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Primary Care-Based Observational Cohort Study
title_full_unstemmed Common Infections and Antibiotic Prescribing during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Primary Care-Based Observational Cohort Study
title_short Common Infections and Antibiotic Prescribing during the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Primary Care-Based Observational Cohort Study
title_sort common infections and antibiotic prescribing during the first year of the covid-19 pandemic: a primary care-based observational cohort study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8698485/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34943733
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics10121521
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