Antibiotic prescriptions associated with a diagnosis of acute nasopharyngitis by general practitioners in France.

Abstract

Background: Rhinopharyngitis is a common viral infection that has led to an overuse of prescription drugs. Antibiotics, which are not indicated for this infection, are frequently misused.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to describe drug prescriptions for acute rhinopharyngitis diagnoses in the French general practices.

Design & setting: Retrospective study of 1,067,403 prescriptions issued by 2,637 physicians to 754,476 patients residing in metropolitan France for a diagnosis of nasopharyngitis.

Method: The data were sourced from the prescription software, Cegedim, for a period spanning from first January 2018 to 31st December 2021 and analysed according to patients and physicians ages.

Results: A total of 2,591,584 medications were prescribed by GPs with a median of 3 medications per patient. A total of 171,540 antibiotics were prescribed (16% prescription rates) with amoxicillin being the most frequently prescribed (102,089 prescriptions and 59.5% of antibiotic prescriptions). Amoxicillin prescription increases in extreme age groups (patients less than 9-year-old were prescribed amoxicillin in 18.2% of their visits, those over 80 years-old 10% of the visits, while patients aged 20-29-year-old were prescribed amoxicillin in just 2.9% of their visits), and more prescriptions are issued by older doctors (GPs older than 70 years prescribed antibiotics in 26.4% of the visits vs 3.2% of the visits by GPs aged less than 29 years).

Conclusion: Nasopharyngitis is frequently a cause of therapeutical over-prescriptions including antibiotics with an antibiotic prescription rate of 16%. Additional research is required to enhance our understanding of the factors linked to drug prescriptions.