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Concurrent Acute Illness and Comorbid Conditions Poorly Predict Antibiotic Use in Upper Respiratory Tract Infections: a Cross-sectional Analysis by Ilene H Zuckerman; Eli N Perencevich; Anthony D Harris is a Medicine article available to read on EtoBox.

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## Background Inappropriate antibiotic use promotes resistance. Antibiotics are generally not indicated for upper respiratory infections (URIs). Our objectives were to describe patterns of URI treatment and to identify patient and provider factors associated with antibiotic use for URIs. ## Methods This study was a cross-sectional analysis of medical and pharmacy claims data from the Pennsylvania Medicaid fee-for-service program database. We identified Pennsylvania Medicaid recipients with a URI office visit over a one-year period. Our outcome variable was antibiotic use within seven days after the URI visit. Study variables included URI type and presence of concurrent acute illnesses and chronic conditions. We considered the associations of each study variable with antibiotic use in a logistic regression model, stratifying by age group and adjusting for confounders. ## Results Among 69,936 recipients with URI, 35,786 (51.2%) received an antibiotic. In all age groups, acute sinusitis, chronic sinusitis, otitis, URI type and season were associated with antibiotic use. Except for the oldest group, physician specialty and streptococcal pharyngitis were associated with antibiotic use.

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Author

Ilene H Zuckerman; Eli N Perencevich; Anthony D Harris

Publisher

BioMed Central; Springer (Biomed Central Ltd.); London: BioMed Central, 2001-; Springer Science and Business Media LLC; Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Inc. (ISSN 1471-2334)

Published

2007

Language

EN

Field

Medicine (Health Sciences)