Millions of people visit a doctor’s office each year for nonbacterial, upper respiratory infections such as the common cold. And while some leave with a prescription for rest and plenty of fluids, many others leave — and head straight to the pharmacy with a prescription for antibiotics.
Why the difference? That’s a question researchers and those in the medical field have been asking for years. Now a study published this month in the Annals of Internal Medicine, from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Canada, looked at why nearly one of every two seniors in Ontario (who visited a family doctor for a non-bacterial infection) received an unnecessary antibiotic prescription.
Nearly one in two seniors was prescribed an antibiotic.
The study — which was actually conducted in 2012, but just published this week — included 185,014 low-risk Ontarian seniors (65 years and older) who were sick with a nonbacterial, upper respiratory infection such as the common cold (53 percent), acute bronchitis (31 percent), acute sinusitis (14 percent) or acute laryngitis (2 percent).
The researchers found that 85,538 of the 185,014 patients were prescribed an antibiotic.
“About 46 percent of people who were felt by their physician to not have a bacterial upper respiratory tract infection still received a prescription for an antibiotic,” said Dr. Michael Silverman, author of the study, who is a Lawson scientist and chief of Infectious Diseases for London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph’s Health Care London.
That’s nearly one in two seniors prescribed an antibiotic. The results from this study add to the concern that antibiotics are prescribed too often and for conditions that are not warranted, which researchers and medical professionals say can lead to resistance of these drugs, among other issues.
Related: The Golden Age of Antibiotics Is Over
According to a piece in ScienceDaily, the majority of the prescriptions were for broad-spectrum antibiotics (70 percent). In addition to an increase in the development of antibiotic resistance, these are also associated with a greater risk of adverse patient outcomes such as: clostridium difficile (inflammation of the colon), diarrhea, heart problems, tendon ruptures, allergic reactions, and more.
“Our study shows that antibiotics are being prescribed too often for conditions that they cannot help despite published professional guidelines that discourage this practice. Unnecessary antibiotics can cause serious harm,” said Silverman.
Related: ‘Gray Death’ — Keep Your Kids Safe from This Scourge
It looks like Silverman and his team are not the only ones to feel this way. In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a report saying that at least 30 percent of antibiotics prescribed in the U.S. are unnecessary. The report described ways in which antibiotic resistance is growing and how health care professionals, health systems, and patients can take specific steps to improve antibiotic use.
Like the CDC, the researchers from this study recommend looking at targeted interventions to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing as next steps.
Sara Hermanson is a freelance writer in Washington State whose focus is health, wellness, fitness and parenting.
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