Trends in outpatient antibiotic prescribing practice among US older adults, 2011-2015: an observational study

Structured abstract Objective To identify temporal trends in outpatient antibiotic use and antibiotic prescribing practice among older adults. Design Observational study using United States Medicare administrative claims during 2011-2015. Trends in antibiotic use were estimated using multivariable regression adjusting for beneficiaries’ demographic and clinical covariates. Setting Medicare. Participants 4.6 million Medicare beneficiaries from a nationwide, 20% sample of fee-forservice Medicare beneficiaries ≥65 years old. Main outcome measurements Overall rates of antibiotic prescription claims, rates of appropriate and inappropriate prescribing, rates for each of the most frequently prescribed antibiotics, and rates of antibiotic claims associated with specific diagnoses. Results Antibiotic claims fell from 1362.2 to 1361.6 claims per 1,000 beneficiaries per year during 2011-2015, an overall 0.2% decrease (95% CI 0.07-0.32). Inappropriate antibiotic claims fell from 552 to 533 claims per 1,000 beneficiaries, a 4.1% decrease (CI 3.9-4.3). Individual antibiotics had heterogeneous changes in use. For example, azithromycin claims per beneficiary decreased by 18.4% (CI 18.2-18.7) while levofloxacin claims increased by 28.1% (CI 27.5-28.6). Azithromycin use associated with each of the potentially appropriate and inappropriate respiratory diagnoses we considered decreased, while levofloxacin use associated with each of those diagnoses increased. Conclusion Among US Medicare beneficiaries, overall antibiotic use and inappropriate use declined modestly, but individual drugs experienced divergent changes in use. Trends in drug use across indications were stronger than trends in use for individual indications, suggesting that guidelines and concerns about antibiotic resistance were not major drivers of change in antibiotic use.