Study of Privately Insured Patients Shows Nearly One in Four Antibiotic Prescriptions Were Unnecessary

Nearly one-quarter of the 15.5 million antibiotic prescriptions filled in 2016 by a population of 19.2 million privately insured children and adults under age 65 were unnecessary, according to a new AHRQ-funded study. The study in BMJ found that 23 percent of antibiotic prescriptions filled were for conditions for which an antibiotic is almost never recommended; 5.5 million, or 36 percent, were for conditions for which an antibiotic is only sometimes recommended; and 2.0 million, or 13 percent, were for conditions for which an antibiotic is nearly always recommended. Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, the University of Michigan Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School conducted a combined analysis of a U.S. medical claims database and the 2016 version of an international system for categorizing diseases (ICD-10-CM). The analysis provides the most comprehensive estimates to date of inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics among people with private, employer-sponsored insurance. Access the study.