Antibiotic Prescribing Is Deeply Rooted in Cultural Anxiety of Uncertainty

Antibiotic prescribing in different countries correlates with level of perceived anxiety about uncertainty.

Unlike any other class of pharmacotherapy, antibiotic prescribing to individual patients has societal impacts, influencing the global epidemiology of antibiotic resistance and virulence of bacterial pathogens. Attempts at evidence-based antibiotic prescribing have been only partly successful, raising the possibility that nonmedical reasons play a significant role in how antibiotics are prescribed.

In this study, researchers examined associations between broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing and cultural indices. They looked at correlations between broad-spectrum antibiotic consumption in 28 European countries and Hofstede cultural dimension indices of power distance (a measure of societal hierarchy and power distribution within a society), u…

Reviewing Author

George Sakoulas, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardParatek Pharmaceuticals; Nestle Corp.; AbbVie; Shionogi

Speaker’s BureauAllergan/AbbVie; Paratek Pharmaceuticals; Nestle Corp.

RoyaltiesUpToDate

Editorial BoardsAntimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy; Open Forum Infectious Diseases