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Research about inappropriate antibiotic prescribing usually focuses on specific conditions and age groups. However, these researchers used several national ambulatory care databases to provide overall population-based estimates that could guide government and professional mandates designed to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing.
Researchers assessed appropriateness of antibiotic use in about 184,000 ambulatory visits (not including urgent care centers, “minute” clinics, federal facilities, or long-term care facilities) in 2010 and 2011 using accepted clinical practice guidelines. If guidelines were not available (e.g., for sinusitis), the lowest regional level of antibiotic use was used as a surrogate for appropriateness (almost cert…