College of Health Sciences Researcher Details Findings in Information Technology (Antibiotic prescribing amongst South African general practitioners in private practice: an analysis of a health insurance database): Information Technology

2022 OCT 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on information technology. According to news originating from Durban, South Africa, by NewsRx editors, the research stated, “To investigate the appropriateness of antibiotic prescribing among GPs in the private primary healthcare sector in South Africa. An anonymized national database of claims for antibiotic prescriptions was obtained from a large medical insurer.”

Financial supporters for this research include South African Medical Research Council; University of Kwazulu-natal.

The news journalists obtained a quote from the research from College of Health Sciences: “Antibiotic prescriptions were categorized based on International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes as ‘appropriate’, ‘potentially appropriate’ and ‘inappropriate’ using a classification scheme developed by Chua et al. (BMJ 2019; 364: k5092). Further assessments of antibiotic choice, dosage and duration of treatment were carried out to determine the appropriateness of ‘appropriate’ and ‘potentially appropriate’ prescriptions in comparison with treatment guidelines. In February 2018, 188 141 antibiotics were prescribed for 174 889 patients who consulted GPs in the private sector. Penicillins were the most frequently prescribed antibiotic class, making up 40.7% of all antibiotics prescribed. Amoxicillin/clavulanic acid was the most frequently prescribed antibiotic, making up 28.6% of all antibiotics prescribed. Diseases of the respiratory system generated the highest number of prescriptions, making up 46.1% of all diagnoses. Of all prescriptions, 8.8% were appropriate, 32.0% were potentially appropriate, 45.4% were inappropriate and 13.8% could not be assessed. Of the appropriately and potentially appropriately prescribed antibiotics, 30.8% were correct antibiotic selections. Of the correctly selected antibiotics for adults, 57.7% had correct doses. Of the antibiotics prescribed with correct doses for adults, 76.7% had correct dosage frequencies and durations of treatment.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “The study revealed that antibiotics were frequently prescribed inappropriately by GPs in the private primary healthcare sector. There is thus a need to develop stewardship interventions in the sector.”

For more information on this research see: Antibiotic prescribing amongst South African general practitioners in private practice: an analysis of a health insurance database. JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance, 2022,4(5). The publisher for JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance is Oxford University Press (OUP).

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlac101.

Our news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Mobolaji Eniola Alabi, Antimicrobial Research Unit, College of Health Sciences, University of Kwa-Zulu, Natal, Durban, South Africa. Additional authors for this research include Sabiha Yusuf Essack.

ORCID is an identifier for authors and includes bibliographic information. The following is ORCID information for the authors of this research: Mobolaji Eniola Alabi (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4478-0534), Sabiha Yusuf Essack (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3357-2761).

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