Infectious Disease

Fluoroquinolone usage varies significantly depending on the age of the provider

October 31, 2021

Read for 1 minute

Source / information

Published by:

Disclosure:
Umarje does not report any relevant financial information. Please refer to the study for all relevant financial information from the other authors.

ADD SUBJECT TO EMAIL ALERTS

Receive an email when new articles are published on

Please enter your email address to receive an email when new articles are published on . “data-action =” subscribe “> subscribe

We could not process your request. Please try again later. If this problem persists, please contact [email protected].

Back to Healio

Fluoroquinolone use decreased between 2015 and 2016 in part due to FDA advice. However, according to one study, their use still varies significantly based on the age of the provider and other characteristics.

“Commonly used fluoroquinolones are subject to increasing safety concerns and government warnings.” Siddhi Pramod Umarje, PharmD, ScM, a graduate research assistant at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and colleagues wrote. “This study characterized the outpatient use of fluoroquinolone in the United States and assessed the impact of the 2016 FDA precautionary statements on its use.”

Umarje SP, et al.  Open Forum Infect Dis.  2021; doi: 10.1093 / ofid / ofab538.

Umarje SP, et al. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2021; doi: 10.1093 / ofid / ofab538.

Researchers used IQVIA’s National Disease and Therapeutic Index to quantify outpatient use of fluoroquinolone in adults. According to the study, the researchers used descriptive statistics and segmented regressions to report trends and quantify the different uses before and after the FDA’s 2016 warnings.

The study showed that fluoroquinolone use decreased by 36.5% between 2015 and 2019, with 18.7 million treatment visits in 2015 and 13.7 million treatment visits in 2019. Further analysis found that annual use decreased 78% for the Respiratory tract, 31% for the genitourinary tract and 31. decreased% in gastrointestinal complaints. In addition, there was a 191% decrease in usage among providers aged 44 and younger, compared with a 34% decrease for providers aged 55 to 64 and an increase of 2% for providers 65 and over.

According to the study, prior to the 2016 FDA advisories, there were approximately 4.8 million fluoroquinolone treatment visits per quarter of the year, down by 641,035 visits (95% CI, -937,368 to -344,702) after the 2016 FDA advisories. There was a statistically significant decrease of approx. 45,000 visits per quarter of the year after the advisories (95% CI, -85,956 to -3,122).

“The dissimilarities in fluoroquinolone use by prescribing physician characteristics suggest underlying differences in attitudes, knowledge, clinical counting, and prescribing behavior,” the authors write. “Identifying and targeting specific segments by prescribers can further help reduce fluoroquinolone overuse.”

ADD SUBJECT TO EMAIL ALERTS

Receive an email when new articles are published on

Please enter your email address to receive an email when new articles are published on . “data-action =” subscribe “> subscribe

We could not process your request. Please try again later. If this problem persists, please contact [email protected].

Back to Healio

Related Articles