U.S. Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing, 2010

Treating infections is one of the greatest successes in medicine, but it may be too easy to prescribe antibiotics. This report reviews U.S. outpatient antibiotic use in 2010. To the Editor: Antibiotic use is an important factor in the spread of antibiotic resistance. It is estimated that 50% of antibiotic prescriptions may be unnecessary. 1 , 2 We analyzed data on the prescription of antibiotics to outpatients in the United States to identify the areas in which interventions addressing appropriate use could have the greatest effect. Data on oral antibiotic prescriptions dispensed during 2010 in the United States were extracted from the IMS Health Xponent database, which represents a 100% projection of prescription activity on the basis of a sample of more than 70% of U.S. prescriptions. Antibiotics were categorized . . .