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Antibiotic overprescribing has received considerable publicity in the last few decades, but actual numbers are seldom included in these descriptions. Using a giant nationwide database of outpatient prescriptions, CDC researchers constructed a detailed analysis of outpatient antibiotic prescribing habits in the U.S. during 2011.
A total of 262.5 million courses of outpatient antibiotics were prescribed in 2011, for an overall rate of 842 prescriptions per 1000 persons. For infants (age, ≤2 years), children (age, 3–9), and older adults (age, ≥65), rates actually exceeded 1000 prescriptions per 1000 persons — an indication that patients in these age groups frequently received several courses of antibiotics during the year. Amoxicillin was the m…