Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Nov 13;14(11):e0224848.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224848. eCollection 2019.

Outpatient antibiotic prescription rate and pattern in the private sector in India: Evidence from medical audit data

Habib Hasan Farooqui  1 , Aashna Mehta  2 , Sakthivel Selvaraj  2
Affiliations

Outpatient antibiotic prescription rate and pattern in the private sector in India: Evidence from medical audit data

Habib Hasan Farooqui et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The key objective of this research was to generate new evidence on outpatient antibiotic prescription rate and patterns in the private sector in India. We used 12-month period (May 2013 to April 2014) medical audit dataset from IQVIA (formerly IMS Health). We coded the diagnosis provided in the medical audit data to International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) and the prescribed antibiotics for the diagnosis to Anatomic Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification of World Health Organization (ATC index-2016). We calculated and reported antibiotic prescription rate per 1,000 persons per year, by age groups, antibiotic class and disease conditions. Our main findings are-approximately 519 million antibiotic prescriptions were dispensed in the private sector, which translates into 412 prescriptions per 1,000 persons per year. Majority of the antibiotic prescriptions were dispensed for acute upper respiratory infections (J06) (20.4%); unspecified acute lower respiratory infection (J22) (12.8%); disorders of urinary system (N39) (6.0%); cough (R05) (4.7%); and acute nasopharyngitis (J00) (4.6%) and highest antibiotic prescription rates were observed in the age group 0-4 years. To conclude our study reports first ever country level estimates of antibiotic prescription by antibiotic classes, age groups, and ICD-10 mapped disease conditions.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Outpatient antibiotic prescription rate per 1000 persons per year, by age groups and antibiotic classes, India (2013–2014).
Fig 2
Fig 2. Number of antibiotic prescriptions, by disease conditions and antibiotic classes, India (2013–2014).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Farooqui HH, Selvaraj S, Mehta A, Heymann DL. Community level antibiotic utilization in India and its comparison vis-a-vis European countries: Evidence from pharmaceutical sales data. PLoS One. 2018;13(10):e0204805 10.1371/journal.pone.0204805 . - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Klein EY, Van Boeckel TP, Martinez EM, Pant S, Gandra S, Levin SA, et al. Global increase and geographic convergence in antibiotic consumption between 2000 and 2015. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018;115(15):E3463–E70. 10.1073/pnas.1717295115 . - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Million Death Study C, Bassani DG, Kumar R, Awasthi S, Morris SK, Paul VK, et al. Causes of neonatal and child mortality in India: a nationally representative mortality survey. Lancet. 2010;376(9755):1853–60. 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61461-4 . - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hersh AL, Jackson MA, Hicks LA, American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious D. Principles of judicious antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory tract infections in pediatrics. Pediatrics. 2013;132(6):1146–54. 10.1542/peds.2013-3260 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. NCDC. National Treatment Guidelines for Antimicrobial Use in Infectious Diseases. New Delhi: National Center for Diease Control, 2016.

Publication types

Substances