New Delhi, Apr 4: Younger people are being increasingly prescribed antibiotics without proper assessment of

complication risk, finds a study, warning that this may potentially lead to resistance. The study, led by epidemiologists at the University of Manchester, UK, showed that doctors are prescribing antibiotics

for tens of thousands of patients with infections, with little or no consideration of prognosis and the risk of the infection

worsening. The study based on an analysis of 15.7 million patient records, revealed that the most elderly patients in the sample

were 31 per cent less likely than the youngest patients to receive an antibiotic for upper respiratory infections. This means “many younger people are being prescribed antibiotics, even though they are often fit enough to recover

without them, potentially leading to resistance,” said the team in the paper, published in the prestigious Journal of the

Royal Society of Medicine. Many older people may not be able to deal with infections without antibiotics are not receiving them, with the

potential of complications and hospital admissions. Patients with combinations of diseases were 7 per cent less likely than people without major health problems to

receive an antibiotic for upper respiratory infections. Further, the findings revealed that the probability of being prescribed antibiotics for a lower respiratory tract or urinary

tract infection was unrelated to hospital admission risk. On the other hand, the probability of being prescribed an antibiotic for an upper respiratory tract infection was only weakly related to hospital admission risk. “Antibiotics are effective in treating bacterial infections, but they carry the risks of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and

loss of effectiveness when used inappropriately. That is why AMR to antibiotics has been recognised as one of the

biggest threats to global public health,” said lead author Professor Tjeerd van Staa from The University of Manchester “The study finds that antibiotics for common infections are commonly not prescribed according to complication risk

and that suggests there is plenty of scope to do more on reducing antibiotic prescribing,” van Staa added. Dr. Ali Fahmi from the varsity urged “clinicians to focus on improving risk-based antibiotic prescribing for infections

that are less severe and typically self-limiting". (IANS)

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