Younger people increasingly prescribed antibiotics without proper assessment

Younger people are being increasingly prescribed antibiotics without proper assessment of complication risk finds a study warning that this may potentially lead to resistanceThe study led by epidemiologists at the University of Manchester UK showed that doctors are prescribing antibiotics for tens of thousands of patients with infections with little or no consideration of prognosis and the risk of the infection worseningThe study based on an analysis of 157 million patient records revealed that the most elderly patients in the sample were 31 per cent less likely than the youngest patients to receive an antibiotic for upper respiratory infectionsThis means ldquomany younger people are being prescribed antibiotics even though they are often fit enough to recover without them potentially leading to resistancerdquo said the team in the paper published in the prestigious Journal of the Royal Society of MedicineMany older people may not be able to deal with infections without antibiotics are not receiving them with the potential of complications and hospital admissionsPatients with combinations of diseases were 7 per cent less likely than people without major health problems to receive an antibiotic for upper respiratory infectionsFurther the findings revealed that the probability of being prescribed antibiotics for a lower respiratory tract or urinary tract infection was unrelated to hospital admission risk On the other hand the probability of being prescribed an antibiotic for an upper respiratory tract infection was only weakly related to hospital admission riskldquoAntibiotics are effective in treating bacterial infections but they carry the risks of antimicrobial resistance AMR and loss of effectiveness when used inappropriately That is why AMR to antibiotics has been recognised as one of the biggest threats to global public healthrdquo said lead author Professor Tjeerd van Staa from The University of ManchesterldquoThe study finds that antibiotics for common infections are commonly not prescribed according to complication risk and that suggests there is plenty of scope to do more on reducing antibiotic prescribingrdquo van Staa addedDr Ali Fahmi from the varsity urged ldquoclinicians to focus on improving riskbased antibiotic prescribing for infections that are less severe and typically selflimitingThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever